Breath of Life
by babyicequeen666
Summary: Hot tempered. Stubborn. Smart ass. Confused. Artemis Flora Summers is back and finds herself once more tangled in a web of the supernatural and Dean Winchester. Sequel to "Slightest Touch."
1. Prologue

**Breath of Life**

**Disclaimer:** I do not own any of the Supernatural characters as they are the property of the CW. I do, however, own Artemis, Kiki, Athena, and any other characters introduced within the story as they are sole property of my mind.

**Summary****: **Zombies, ghosts, demons, and all other supernatural she could handle. The disappearance of her best friend and the confused feelings for Dean she wasn't sure she could handle. Drawn back into hunting after nearly a year, 24 year old Artemis Flora Summers sets out once again with the Winchester boys and her old friend, Athena, to figure out who is behind the kidnapping of Kiki and why they want her. However, things begin to take unexpected turns when Artemis finds herself facing more of her past as her connection to Sam becomes more apparent and strong. What happens when she realizes that she's destined to follow in the footsteps of her ancestors? Can she shed those icy layers again to allow Sam and Dean, especially Dean, back in? Or has she finally met her end?

* * *

**Prologue**

"This is so sad."

"This is absolutely awful and it was the worst thing that could have happened to the sweetest and kindest person in the world."

" I agree. She was loved by all. She did everything to make sure that someone else's needs were put before her own. There was not a bad bone in that girl's body."

"I still think her friend had something to do with her death. There is no way she should be cleared of those charges if she's the only one that knows what happened to that poor girl."

"Would it kill some of these ladies to keep their fucking mouths shut when it comes to you?" I glanced up from the album in my lap to look at Dean as he made his way toward me with an irritated look across his face.

"They just need somebody to blame it on. I was with her when she died. Therefore, I'm suppose to be the cause of her death. End of story. Where's Sam and Kiki?" I asked as he sat himself down beside me, causing the wooden swing I was sitting on to swing back and forth gently.

"Sam's doing some damage control inside with the police who decided to show up and ask you more questions and Kiki is trying to keep the bitches from coming over here with pitch forks and torches. I swear it's like you've got a target on your back telling people to come and fuck with you. What are you looking at?" he asked, pointing to the album in my lap.

"Some memories. There's not a lot of pictures growing up. Just some when we were kids, but it's the thoughts and memories that count most of the time I had with her," I replied with a slight shrug.

"Art…"

"We'll wait until the cover of nightfall and then we'll go salt and burn her body. She'll come back to haunt me if we don't do that," I said as I shoved the album into his hands and stood up. Cracking my neck, I headed inside to find Kiki angrily tossing things around the kitchen as Sam stood nearby shaking his head.

"Do I dare ask?" I asked as I side-stepped a dish, wincing as it smashed against the wall where my head had been. I raised an eyebrow as Kiki gave me a dirty look before returning to her task at hand. Looking to Sam, he gently pushed me out of the kitchen and led me down the hall.

"Uh…can I ask why my best friend is throwing dishes around my kitchen?" I asked.

"She's a little upset," he replied, causing me to roll my eyes.

"You think?" I asked, sarcasm dripping off my tongue. I really wasn't in the mood to be dealing with any of this at this point.

"Artemis, she's just going through a tough time right now with…."

"And I'm not? My family friend is dead and I have to salt and burn her body tonight after all of this calms down. People that knew the both of us, more Athena than myself, think that I have something to do with her death, which by the way is pretty much my fault. It…."

"Don't you dare say that, Artemis. Athena's death is not your fault. None of what happened is your fault," he said as he gave me a look of disbelief.

"Oh really? So the demon possessing her and me having to kill her because I couldn't find a way to save her is not my fault? Sam, I could have saved her. I saw her death and I couldn't prevent it from happening. I saw your death, Sam, and I couldn't prevent it. All of these visions I'm having I can't prevent all the bad things happening in them. Apparently I'm suppose to follow in my ancestors footsteps and lead this demon army side by side with you when that god damn bloody gate of hell broke open. All of these visions and this road we are heading down is bearing down on me, Sam. And Dean? He wouldn't be in this mess if I had just prevented your death. You think Kiki's going through a rough time with her being kidnapped and somewhat tortured or whatever the fuck she went through during that time? It's not even close to what I'm going through right now," I snapped as I stormed past him and back down the hall. I almost made it to the stairs when Dean cut me off.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on just one minute. You're not going anywhere," he said, causing me to scowl and try and break from his hold.

"Let me go, Dean. I'm in no mood," I said as I gave him a glare.

"And I can see that. But talk to me, Artemis. What the hell is wrong with you? Other than the fact of Athena being dead. Talk to me. Talk to me, babe," he said, causing me to give him a look before pushing him off of me and running my hand over my face. How could I tell him? How could I tell him with everything going on?

"I know something is turning in that head of yours. I know you well enough to know this. Talk to me," he said as he gently ran his hand along my face before gently kissing me. I felt tears beginning to form in my eyes and I knew I was breaking. I hadn't cried since having to kill Athena and everything that had happened between then and now was catching up and it was all just too much for me. Tears beginning to fall slowly down my face, I looked at Dean as he began to shake his head and I realized that Sam and Kiki were standing in the doorway of the hall looking at us in concern.

"Not now, Sam," he said, causing Sam to nod and gently tug at Kiki to follow him.

"No. Wait. Sam, don't go," I said, causing him to turn to look at me with concern.

"Art?" Dean asked with confusion laced in his voice.

"Dean, I'm going to need Sam more than anything when you go. If we can't find a way out of your deal," I replied as I gave him a look, tears beginning to fall heavily down my face by now.

"This isn't just about Athena and her death. Is it, Artemis? There is something more than just her death that is bothering you," Sam said, causing me to nod.

"Babe, talk to me. What is going on? Of course you're going to need Sam when I die. I would come back and haunt his ass if he didn't take care of you. And he knows it damn well too," Dean said, causing me to shake my head.

"That's not the reason, Dean," I said.

"Then what is it?" he asked, causing me to look between him and Sam several times before I let out a sigh and dropped my head just slightly.

"I'm pregnant," I whispered, causing Dean to go stiff as the four of us just stood there in silence for a good while. It felt like an eternity before he spoke.

"I don't think I quite caught that. Did you just say that you were pregnant?" he asked, causing me to nod as I lifted my head slowly to look into his shocked eyes. Looking over to Sam, I saw that both he and Kiki were just as stunned. No doubt that this was the last thing they expected me to say.

"I'm pregnant, Dean, and the baby is due after you're gone," I replied, causing him to stare at me for about a minute more in shock before he pulled me against him and wrapped me tight in his arms, my face buried into his chest as I began to let go of all the emotions I had built up in the last few days. How was I going to be able to do this by myself without him? Sure I had Sam and Kiki, but that wasn't the same. I needed Dean. I couldn't do this alone. Not with what we were going to be dealing with in the near future. I was losing everything around me and I didn't know what to do. It was going to be a highway full of hell the next couple of months.


	2. Chapter 1: Blood Lust

**Disclaimer****:** I do not own any of the Supernatural characters as they are the property of the CW. I do, however, own Artemis, Kiki, Athena, and any other characters introduced within the story as they are sole property of my mind.

**Summary****: **Zombies, ghosts, demons, and all other supernatural she could handle. The disappearance of her best friend and the confused feelings for Dean she wasn't sure she could handle. Drawn back into hunting after nearly a year, 24 year old Artemis Flora Summers sets out once again with the Winchester boys and her old friend, Athena, to figure out who is behind the kidnapping of Kiki and why they want her. However, things begin to take unexpected turns when Artemis finds herself facing more of her past as her connection to Sam becomes more apparent and strong. What happens when she realizes that she's destined to follow in the footsteps of her ancestors? Can she shed those icy layers again to allow Sam and Dean, especially Dean, back in? Or has she finally met her end?

* * *

**Blood Lust**

"Do we know anything else besides the sulfur that Dean found?"

"Blood dripping from the counter and on the floor with the sulfur. There was no doubt that she fought back against whatever attacked her."

"All guests were accounted for at that time?"

"Some had left but most were accounted for. I wouldn't exactly know. Dean was twirling me around the bloody dance floor during that time."

"Are you already starting to blame me for this, princess?"

"And we're right back to arguing like old time sakes as if nothing happened at all. God I missed bloody hunting," I said with as much sarcasm as I could muster, looking up from my notes to give Dean a cold glare as he did the same through the rearview mirror. He made to say something, but Sam smacked him upside the head and turned to give me a dirty look.

"That's enough out of both of you. Kiki's missing and we're not going to get anywhere with the two of you allowing past incidents to get in the way. I know we don't have much to go on, but it's a start," he snapped, causing Athena and I to look at one another before looking back at Sam. I had never seen Sam so pissed off as he was. Not that I blamed him. Kiki being taken by a demon just hours after she became Mrs. Sam Winchester was a huge hit to him and I really didn't want to get on the bad side of him. I really didn't.

"Alright. So we know it was a demon. No doubt about it. What we don't know is how they managed to take Kiki like they did," Athena said.

"A demon possesses a body. That part is clear because that's how demons work. Which brings us to the question of how they did it when it would of required two bodies. Kiki's and then another person," I said.

"But there was no other person in that bathroom when you went in," Dean said, causing me to nod.

"Exactly. The demon was possessing one of the guests and attacked her. There would be no blood if the demon came through the bathroom window and entered into her body. I think we've seen enough exorcisms or possessions to know they don't do blood. Which leads to a few possibilities as to what happened. The demon could have possessed a guest and then attacked Kiki before possessing Kiki's body and taking off with the guest out the bathroom window. Or the possessed guest fought with Kiki and another demon possessed her, which I think would be the more logical explanation that we've got," I said.

"Which would explain the sulfur tracks by the entrance of the door and the window that Bobby found after we left," Sam said.

"Ok. So we've got a basic idea of what happened to her. We know that demons are involved. What we don't know is what they want with her and why as well as where to start looking," Athena said, causing me to nod.

"Which is going to be a bloody pain in the ass to find a trail. Demons are not as stupid as we like to think," I said.

"So we just need to find a starting point and go from there," Dean said, causing me to roll my eyes and throw my pencil at the back of his head.

"Way to go, Captain Obvious," I said as he glared at me.

"Summers, I'm warning you. Do that again and…"

"And you'll what? Throw me out of the Impala as it's moving? I know you too well, Winchester. You haven't got the guts to do it because Sam will have your head. Are you forgetting that he's very protective of me like you are of him?" I asked, causing him to give me a glare as he knew I was right. Even after all this time of being away from him and the others, I still knew him too well. And he knew that Sam would kill him if he harmed one hair on my head.

"Enough. I don't want to put up with you two. At least act civil to each other right now. Kiki's not going to be found with you two arguing like you did the last time we were all together. Here. I think I might know where we can start," Sam said as he passed some papers back to me.

"What is it?" I asked.

"A couple of severed heads and a pile of dead cows," he replied.

"And this is relevant because why?" Dean asked, causing me to scoff and shake my head. He was an idiot.

"Because it's the only thing I can pull up that looks suspicious. Maybe we can find a connection to the kidnapping of my god damn wife, Dean! Really? Are you really this ignorant to why I said something about it? My fucking wife was kidnapped from our god damn wedding, Dean, and you're asking why a couple of severed heads and a pile of dead cows is relevant to finding her? What kind of brother are you?" he snapped, causing my eyes to widen with fear as Dean pulled the car off the side of the road. I had never seen Sam like this and it was scaring me as they got out of the car. Athena and I shared a look before hurrying out after them.

"You don't think I care? You don't think I care that my little brother is hurting over this?" Dean asked, causing Sam to scoff.

"It shows, Dean. If I didn't know any better, you and Artemis somehow switched bodies or brains or something. It's like…."

"Hey! Leave me out of this," I snapped.

"Shut up, Artemis!" they both yelled, causing me to stare at them in shock before my eyes narrowed.

"Excuse me?" I asked.

"This doesn't involve you!"

"Like bloody hell it doesn't! You're bringing me into it!"

"Stay out of it, princess!"

"Or you'll what?"

"Enough!" The three of us stopped arguing and turned our gaze upon Athena, who was shaking her head and muttering obscenities under her breath.

"This is getting us nowhere at all. Sam, we know you're hurting about Kiki. We all are. But getting pissed off with us and snapping at us like you are is not going to help at all. It's only going to make things worse. And you two? Put the past behind you for right now and deal with it when it's appropriate. You two are excellent hunters and I'm not going to allow the two of you to be this childish and let it effect your work. Now, we're going to get back in the car and head to the location Sam has written down. It may not be what we're looking for, but we won't know until we look. Alright? Good. Sam, what's the location you got?" she asked as she looked over toward him.

"Red Lodge, Montana," he replied.

"How far do you estimate we're from there?" she asked.

"Given that we spent a few days after the wedding traveling straight from Lawrence to Bobby's, gathering our research and stuff we need, and heading out, I would say about 300 miles or so," he replied.

"Alright then. Red Lodge, Montana is where we're going. And I don't want to hear another word out of any of you that's negative unless we're dealing with the case," she said, heading back toward the car and slamming it shut. I would have laughed at Dean's wince over the slamming of his precious baby, but decided it was better to leave it be. I knew how Athena got when she was pissed off enough.

"Well it looks like we got another Artemis on our hands." Glaring over at Dean, who gave me a smirk, I glanced to make sure Sam was calmed down enough before smacking Dean against the head and heading toward the car.

"Don't let her hear you say that. She's got a worse attitude than I do when she's really pissed off. Now let's go. Time's being wasted just standing here," I said before shutting the door and searching through my bag for my iPod. As Dean started the car back up, I glanced up for a brief second to catch him looking at me through the rear view mirror. Studying the look in his eyes, I knew that he was having the same trouble I was wrapping our heads around this whole situation I knew we both had wanted to avoid. He knew it as well as I did that there was no way we could be able to keep the peace between us that Athena and Sam wanted. Sighing, I tiled my head back and let the music float through my ears as it sent a wave of calmness through me. This hunting together was not going to be as easy as it had a year ago.

* * *

*******Dean's POV*******

"You're kidding me, right?"

"Does it look like we're kidding, princess?"

"You're telling us that you two knuckleheads couldn't keep your story straight of what newspaper you were working for? The easiest thing in the world to pull off and you couldn't do that?"

"So we screwed up just a hair. What the hell do you want us to tell you?" I asked as the four of us walked into Chandler County Hospital where the body of one of the victims was being kept. Sam and I had left the sheriff's department with some information about the severed heads and mutilated cows, but it wasn't enough to give us any real idea to what was going on. Apparently it wasn't enough information for either of the two females before me to be kept happy. Go figure on that one.

"We don't have time for screwing up, Dean. Weren't you raised to do everything precisely and to the tee since our job doesn't accept a lot of errors to be made?" Artemis asked, causing me to scowl and make to grab her by the throat, but Sam intervened and gave me a look.

"Don't. You're going to blow our cover. We'll discuss everything when we get back to the motel. And it goes for you as well," he said as he looked to Artemis, who merely stuck out her tongue and continued walking.

"That girl is going to be the death of me," I grumbled, causing Sam to roll his eyes before following behind the two girls to the room where the body was. Opening up the door, we saw a young man sitting behind a desk, who seemed a bit startled to see us, and I could see that his tag read "J. Manners." Well this would be interesting.

"John," I said with a nod.

"Jeff," he said as he stood up, causing me to force myself to chuckle slightly.

"Jeff, I knew that. Dr. Dworkin needs to see you in his office right away," I said, causing him to give me a slight look of confusion.

"But Dr. Dworkin's on vacation," he said.

"But he's back now and he's bloody pissed. He's screaming for you. You best be going to see what he wants before he fires you or something," Artemis said, causing the guy to have a look of fear cross his face and hurry out of the room. Checking to make sure that he had left and nobody else was coming, she shut the door and looked at me before heading over toward the wall where the bodies were kept.

"Hey. Those Satanists in Florida? They marked their victims, didn't they?" I asked, causing Sam to nod.

"Yeah. Reverse pentacle on the forehead," he replied as I handed him gloves.

"Yeah. So much fucked up shit happens in Florida," I said with a shake of my head.

"Like the waitress in Tampa?" Artemis asked with sarcasm as she and Athena pulled out the body.

"Oh you're funny. Real comedian," I replied, causing her to roll her eyes and flip open the container in which the head was concealed in. Scanning the head, I saw no signs of bruising or any markings that would have resulted in a Satanic cult ritual.

"Well, no pentagram," I said.

"Wow. Poor girl," Sam said as he shook his head.

"Did you check her mouth or ears or something where there could be some possibility of something hiding in there? Like maggots or something lodged in her throat that could give us any clue as to what happened to her besides the fact that she got decapitated?" Athena asked.

"She's got a point. Those wicks could have stuffed something down her throat. Kind of like the moth in _Silence of the Lambs_," I said.

"Well go ahead," I said as I twisted the container toward Sam. He gave me a incredulous look before pushing it back toward me.

"No way. You go ahead," he said.

"I don't think so," I said as I pushed it back toward him, only to have Artemis shove me out of the way and open up the woman's mouth to stick her fingers down the throat.

"Men," she muttered as she shook her head.

"You're not effected by sticking your fingers down someone's throat?" Sam asked, causing her to shake her head.

"The girl is dead and it's not like she's going to take my fingers off as I shove them down her bloody esophagus. Besides, you two are bloody chicken to do it yourself. We'd be here all bloody day if I didn't do it," she replied, causing me to raise an eyebrow. Since when did her accent thicken?

"I spent most of the last year researching my heritage. Spent 6 months not hunting to be in England. And of course I picked up on how to better read people's thoughts and movements in case you're wondering," she said as she gave me a haughty look. I looked to Sam in surprise and he merely shrugged. And he didn't tell me this over the many times we talked or hunted together? I was going to have to question him over this later.

"I didn't find anything. Just squishy tissue and shit that makes up the throat," Artemis said as she pulled her fingers out of the mouth.

"Hang on a second. Lift the lip again," Athena said, causing Artemis to give her a questioning look but do as she was asked. Looking at where she had lifted, I raised an eyebrow in confusion when I saw the holes that lined the upper part of the gum.

"What is that? A hole?" I asked, causing Artemis to push at the gum and something to slightly come out. What in the hell?

"It's a tooth," Sam said as confusion laced his voice.

"That's not a tooth," Artemis said with a shake of her head, causing me to finally realize what it was.

"It's a fang. A retractable set of vampire fangs. You got to be kidding me," I said with a huff of annoyance.

"Well that changes everything," Athena said, causing me to give her a dirty look.

"No. Really," I asked with sarcasm, causing her to return the dirty look.

"Alright. Let's not get into any arguments about this. There has got to be a place that knows about these killings," Sam said.

"Bar?" she asked.

"I saw one that looks a bit run down on our way into town. I think it might be the only bar in town that the vampires might like to hang out at since it looks the way it does," Artemis replied as she took off her gloves.

"I see you still got good use of your photographic memory," Sam said as she nodded.

"I've sharpened my skills over the last year," she said.

"Well let's get out of these clothes and headed over to the bar once dark has set in. We might get some good information of people when there are actual people in the bar," I said, causing Artemis to snort with laughter as she and Athena headed for the door.

"Nice observation, Einstein," she said before they left, causing me to scowl and shake my head.

"That girl is going to be the death of me," I said as Sam and I shoved the body back into its hole and then headed off after the two girls.

"She's changed a lot over the last year, Dean. She's still the same Artemis we knew, but she's changed a lot. Don't put yourself even farther on the bad side of her as you already are. I just wish the two of you would talk about what happened and move on so that you don't have to suffer. She still loves you, Dean, even if she won't admit to it. Just like you. Keep that in mind," he said as he shook his head. I sighed and ran a hand over my face as I took in what Sam had said. Was he right?

* * *

*******Artemis' POV*******

"I can see why most people in this town like to come here. Psychos probably hiding around every corner."

"I'd have to agree with you on that one, princess. Four beers please," Dean said as we approached the bartender, causing him to nod as he gathered up four beers and placed them in front of us.

"So we're looking for some people," Sam said.

"Sure. It's hard to be lonely," the bartender said, causing myself and Athena to snort with laughter as we apparently got what he was aiming at. Sam and Dean, however, didn't find it too amusing as Sam pulled out a $50 bill and placed it in front of the bartender.

"Not what we meant," Sam said, causing the bartender to look at the four of us and the $50 bill before taking it into his hands. I smirked and took a sip of my beer as I knew we had his attention and answers to what we need.

"Great. So these people we're looking for, they would have moved here about six months ago," Athena said.

"Probably pretty rowdy and like to drink," I added.

"Yeah. Real night owls, you know? Sleep all day and party all night," Dean said.

"Barker Farm got leased out a couple of months ago. Real winners. They've been in here a lot. Drinkers. Noisy. I've had to eighty-six them once or twice," the bartender said, causing me to give Athena a look. Definitely our vampires.

"Thanks," Dean said before we headed out of the bar and around toward the back.

"Definitely sounds like our vampires. I don't think I've ever run into a vampire that doesn't like to drink or be noisy in all my years of hunting," Athena said, causing Sam and Dean to nod.

"I'd agree with you there, but vampires were never our specialty, Athena. I've only come across vampires twice in the last 10 years. Once with you and once with Kiki, Sam, and Dean when we came across the colt. Which by the way, do either of you two still have it?" I asked as I gave a look to the brothers.

"Keep your knickers on, princess. We've got it," Dean said, causing me to snort with laughter at his use of the word "knickers."

"Liking my ancestors, Winchester? Would of never fancied you to be one to use words like that. Bravo," I said, causing him to give me a glare.

"Shut up," he said.

"Ok. Then I won't tell you about the guy that was pretending to not pay us any attention while we were talking to the bartender and that he's following us right now," I said, causing them to stop and look at me before nodding.

"We had a faint idea but this is why we rely on you to make sure," Sam said before he pulled me to him and placed his hand over my mouth to keep me from talking as he backed himself as close to a wall as possible. Dean had done the same thing to Athena and the sound of foot steps caused me to not make any sign of movement as I realized why they had done what they did. Listening to the footsteps, I could tell that they were not vampire and it had to be that of a hunter. They were too light and almost stealth like.

"Go," Sam said, causing them to let go of us and attack the guy, pinning him to the brick wall with a knife at his throat.

"Smile," Dean ordered as we moved to stand next to the brothers.

"What?" the man asked as he gave them a look.

"Show us those pearly whites," Dean replied, causing the man to give us an insane look.

"For the love of…You want to stick that thing someplace else? I'm not a vampire," he said, causing me to blink in surprise.

"Excuse me?" I asked.

"Yeah, that's right. I heard you guys," he replied.

"What do you know about vampires?" Sam asked with suspicion.

"How to kill them. Now, seriously, bro, that knife's making me itch," he said, causing me to snort with laughter as Dean gave him the "do you really think we're stupid?" look.

"Hey!" I snapped my head in Sam's direction as he gave the man a glare.

"Whoa. Easy there, Chachi," he said as he slowly raised his hand up and toward his face. I watched as he pulled back his lip and I realized that my suspicions were true. This man was no vampire.

"See? Fangless. You happy?" he asked, causing Sam and Dean to stare at him for a second before warily letting go of him.

"He's not a vampire, but he's definitely not a civilian," I whispered to Athena, causing her to give me a confused look. But before she could question me, the man gave us all a look.

"Now, who the hell are you?" he asked, causing the four of us to look at one another before looking back at the man.

"Dean and Sam Winchester, Athena McAndrews, and Artemis Summers," Dean said as he nod to each of us. The man gave the two boys a look of surprise and let out a chuckle before walking back toward the entrance of the alley we had come into.

"What the bloody hell was that all about?" I asked as I gestured toward the man's back.

"Who knows. But apparently he seems to know us or heard about us. Come on," Sam said, pulling me with him as he and Dean went after the guy. We found the guy unlocking his car and he gave a chuckle as he opened up his door.

"Sam and Dean Winchester. I can't believe it. I met your old man once. Hell of a guy. Great hunter. I'm sorry to hear that he passed. That's big shoes to fill, but from what I hear, you guys fill them. Great trackers Good in a tight spot. I'm also sorry to hear about your wife, Sam. Must be one hell of a lady to be tracking down what took her," he said as he pulled out a rack hidden within his car. I raised an eyebrow and crossed my arms over my chest as I looked at him.

"Seem to know a lot about our family," Dean said, causing him to nod.

"He's a hunter, Dean. And judging by the choice of weapons, he's not just any type of hunter. He's a special hunter. Specializing in vampires. I've heard of him. Gordon Walker," I said, causing the guy to look at me in amazement before he chuckled.

"Smart girl. And I've heard a lot about you through the grapevine of the hunting chain. Artemis Summers. Survived the supernatural killings of her family and escaped a reaper's death. Word travels fast. You know how hunters talk," he said, causing Dean to shake his head.

"No, we don't, actually," Dean said.

"I guess there's a lot your dad never told you, huh? Or your parents?" he asked as he nodded toward Athena.

"I know enough to get me through my lifestyle," she replied as she rolled her eyes. Sam, sensing a change in the atmosphere, changed the subject to the matter at hand.

"So, um…so those two vampires? They were yours?" Sam asked, causing Gordon to nod.

"Yup. Been here two weeks," he replied.

"Check out that farm?" Dean asked.

"A bust. Just a bunch of hippie freaks. They could kill you with that patchouli smell," he replied.

"So where's the nest then?" I asked, causing him to look at me before chuckling and shoving his weapons back into his car.

"I got this one covered. Don't get me wrong. It's a real pleasure meeting you fellas and your lady friends. But I've been on this thing for over a year. I killed a fang back in Austin and tracked the next here. I'll finish it," he said, causing me to snort with laughter. Everyone looked at me and I merely shrugged. This guy was more arrogant then Dean and I sensed something being off about him, but I just wasn't sure what.

"We could help," Dean said.

"Thanks, but I'm a go-it-alone type of guy," he said.

"Come on. I've been itching for a hunt," Dean said, causing me to roll my eyes. Did he really think that he could win this guy over like that?

"Sorry. But, hey, I hear there's a chupacabra two states over. Go ahead and knock yourselves out. It was real good meeting you, though. I'll buy you a drink on the flip side," he said before he got into his car and started to drive away. Once I knew he was out of earshot, I turned to the others.

"There is something fishy about this guy. And the fact that he's trying to send us away when this could possibly help us find Kiki is really grating on my bloody nerves. Please tell me that we're not going to listen him and leave," I said, causing Sam to shake his head.

"I agree. There is something kind of fishy about this guy. And there is no way I'm leaving without knowing if this a clue or whatnot about Kiki," he said.

"Then I say we figure out our next move," Dean said as the rest of us nodded.

* * *

"Another one bites the dust."

"That's right."

"You're repulsive."

"Get your knickers out of the twist you have them in, princess. It was just a vampire." I gave Dean a glare as he clanked shot glasses with Gordon before downing the alcohol within them. We followed our instincts and headed down to a shipyard where we found Gordon getting the shit kicked out of him. Had we not intervened, he would have been killed by a huge saw, which Dean instead used on the vampire. Which actually scared me a little bit because it was like he had no second thoughts about doing it. And we were now sitting with Gordon at the bar drinking. Or well Dean was while Sam, Athena, and I sat and watched.

"Dean, you gave that big-ass fang one hell of a haircut, my friend," Gordon said.

"Thank you," Dean said, causing me to shake my head. What the bloody hell was going on?

"That was beautiful. Absolutely beautiful," he said.

"Well. You all right, Sammy," Dean asked as he looked over at his brother.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he replied, causing me to roll my eyes. How stupid could these brothers really be to hide their feelings like this?

"Well, lighten up a little, Sammy," Gordon said, causing me to choke on my beer slightly at the name slipping off Gordon's tongue. Nobody but me or Dean was allowed to call him that. He didn't even allow Kiki to call him and she was his wife.

"He's the only one who gets to call me that. My brother and Artemis," Sam said as he gave Gordon a look.

"Uh…okay. No offense meant. Just celebrating a little. Job well done," Gordon said.

"Job well done my bloody ass," I muttered as I shook my head and took another sip of my beer.

"Right. Well, uh…decapitations aren't my idea of a good time, I guess," Sam said.

"Oh come on, man. It's not like it was human. You got to have fun with your job," he said, causing Dean to nod in agreement.

"That's what I've been trying to tell him for years. Wife going missing has put a bit of a damper on it," Dean said, causing me to scoff in disgust as I stood up. I was done. I couldn't listen to this anymore.

"I'm going back to the motel. I can't stand to listen to this bloody shit anymore. Sam, you want to walk back with me?" I asked as I headed for the door.

"Yeah," he replied as he stood up and made to follow.

"Hey Sammy?" We both stopped and turned toward Dean as he pulled out the keys to the Impala and tossed them to Sam.

"Remind me to beat that buzz kill out of you later, all right? You too, princess," he said, causing me to flip him off slam the screened door open to walk out and head for the Impala.

"Athena's making sure Dean doesn't hurt himself before he reaches the motel," Sam said as he started up the Impala and headed in the direction of the motel.

"Let's hope so. He's in for a rude awakening when I get my hands on him. What is going on? It's like he doesn't care. We're suppose to be working on finding Kiki and he's sitting in the bar with that bloody vampire hunter drinking. What is wrong with him?" I asked, causing Sam to shrug.

"Who knows. But I've got a bad feeling about this Gordon guy," he replied, causing me to give him the "do I look like I'm stupid?" look.

"I could of told you that one. Are you sure you and your brother are not twins or something? Because I told you this earlier after we met him and you know my feelings are usually never wrong," I said, causing him to look at me as he pulled the Impala to a stop in front of the motel and killed the engine.

"Is there something you're not sharing with me, Artemis?" he asked.

"What makes you say that?" I asked.

"Because your skills on your photographic memory and your feelings about the things around you are a hell of a lot stronger than when you took off to England right after you were released from the hospital a year ago," he replied.

"I've had time to fine tune my skills without interruption in my life," I said with a shrug.

"I can see that. But how about you tell me what you were really doing in England this past year," he said, causing me to roll my eyes.

"I told you. I was researching my heritage. Nothing more. Now what the hell are we going to do about Gordon? Something isn't right," I said as we headed into the motel. I could tell that he didn't believe me, but kept his mouth shut about it because he knew I would tell him in time. I always told him just about everything, but I just wasn't ready to tell him what I was really doing in England when I had left. There was so much more at stake right now.

"I'm thinking maybe we should call Ellen," he said as I dug through my duffel for clean clothes.

"Ellen?" I asked as I gave him a look.

"Yeah. Ellen Harvelle. Runs a bar in Nebraska that is filled with hunters most of the time. Worked a couple of cases for her over the last year. Figured she might know something about this hunter since she knows a lot about supernatural," he replied, causing me to give him a look before shrugging.

"Whatever you say. I'm going to go take a shower. Let me know what you find out," I said, causing him to nod before I shut the bathroom door and turned the shower on. A nice hot shower was what I needed after a night like tonight and I was going to have one whether someone liked it or not. Stripping my clothes and adjusting the water, I let out a sigh as I stepped underneath the cascade of water. The shower was a good place to collect all of my thoughts and I had a lot of thoughts running through my mind. Kiki, Sam, my time in England, hunting, Dean….

"Oh god," I muttered as I leaned my head against the cold tile, the water cascading down my back. Dean was something I actually didn't want to think about at this particular moment. I was sure that if I let myself get to caught up in it that I would not be able to think or focus on what was more important. I was broken out of my train of thought when I heard a loud thump from outside the door.

"Sam? Is everything alright?" I called.

"Yeah. Everything's fine. Just tripped over something," he replied, causing me to roll my eyes. Him and his gigantic body. I wasn't sure how Kiki managed. I mean, I got along fine with everyone being taller than I was, but whatever. Scrubbing the rest of my body, I finished with my shower and dried myself off before getting dressed and heading out to the main room. I glanced around and raised an eyebrow in confusion when I saw no sign of Sam whatsoever.

"Sam?" I called as I glanced once more around the room before walking toward the door to check to see if he was somewhere outside the room. However, just as I got to the door, it swung open and Dean walked in with Athena and Gordon in tow.

"Don't do that. You scared the bloody hell out of me," I said, causing him to roll his eyes before moving them up and down my body.

"Nice pjs, princess," he said with a smirk as I glanced down at my Eeyore tank top and pajama bottoms before throwing the towel I had been using to dry my hair at him.

"Shut up. Was Sam outside?" I asked, causing Athena to shake her head as she sat down on one of the beds.

"No. He's not here?" she asked.

"No. That's the point of me asking you that. He was here when I got in the shower and then wasn't when I got out," I replied.

"Chill our, princess. He's probably just taking a walk or something to clear his head. He'll be back. So stop worrying about him for the time being. Come over here and help us out with these vampires," Dean said as he and Gordon made themselves comfortable at the table. I stared at him for a second before scoffing.

"Who are you and what have you done with Dean Winchester?" I asked.

"What are you talking about? I'm still here," he replied.

"No you're not. This is not the Dean Winchester I know. The Dean Winchester I know acts like he cares about the things and people around him. You're acting like you don't care, especially since your brother isn't here and nobody knows where he might be," I snapped, causing him to give me a heated glare.

"Well isn't that calling the kettle black, Artemis. Just like you said a few days ago. A year does something to you. And I give a damn about my little brother. There's no sign of breaking in and no sign of a struggle, which to me says that he's just gone off for a walk. Or maybe he's just hiding from you since you're psycho. I'd go for the latter one. And don't tell me that I don't care about everything and everyone around me because I do. You, my brother, and Athena believe that this might be a step in finding Kiki and I'm doing just that. Tracking these vampires to see what they know. It's a lot more than what you've done," he said, causing me to scowl and step toward him, only to be shoved back by Athena.

"That's enough. Dean, just go about your business with Gordon and see what you can find. Artemis, I'm sure Sam's fine. This is not the first time he's walked away from the motel without saying anything. He's probably just out for a short walk. He'll be back shortly. I have no doubt about that," she said, causing me to cast Dean a dirty look before grabbing my sketch book out of my bag and sitting down on the bed.

"Sam will be fine, Artemis. Don't worry about it," she said, causing me to sigh as I flipped open the book. I tried to listen in on Dean and Gordon's conversation about the tracking of the vampires, but my mind kept floating to Sam. Something wasn't right about his sudden disappearance like that. He would have let me know that he was going outside the room for a little bit so that I wouldn't freak like I did. Something just wasn't right at all. I was broken out of my thoughts when I heard the door open and I tore my eyes away from my book to see Sam coming into the room. I was about to let it go on him, but something in his face told me that something had happened. That something was deeply wrong.

"Where you been?" Dean asked.

"Can I talk to you alone?" he asked as he looked at Dean. Dean gave us a confused look before turning to Gordon.

"Mind chilling out for a couple of minutes?" he asked, causing Gordon to nod before Dean got up and followed Sam outside. Athena and I looked at each other before she stood up.

"I'm going to go outside and make sure they don't kill each other. Keep your eye on him. He gives me the creeps," she said before she headed outside as well.

"No kidding. Am I the only bloody person who knew this from the god damn bloody start?" I muttered as I threw Gordon a glare before I stood up and headed to the bathroom to splash some water on my face. The way Gordon's eyes were burning into me was giving me the creeps and I just couldn't shake this feeling about him. Like I was suppose to stop him or something along those lines before something bad happened.

"This will be real fun to explain to everyone about these feelings," I thought as I gently dried my face with a hand towel. As I made to hang it up on the ring next to the sink, I found myself realizing too late that Gordon had moved as I found my head slammed against the wall and the darkness devouring me.

* * *

*******Dean's POV*******

"You both are acting real irrational. Especially you, Dean."

"Go to hell, Athena," I said as I pushed past her and into the motel room, Sam no doubt on my heels. I couldn't believe Sam. I couldn't believe what he said. Not after everything we had been through. I was going to kill him when this whole case was over with. However, I stopped dead in my tracks when I realized that Gordon was not inside the motel room.

"Gordon?" I called as I looked around the room.

"You think he went after them?" Sam asked.

"Probably," I replied as I gave him a dirty look.

"We have to stop him," he said as he made a grab for the door.

"Really? Because I say we lend a hand," I snapped.

"Just give me the benefit of the doubt, would you? You owe me that," he said, causing me to scoff.

"Yeah, we'll see. I'll drive. Give me the keys," I said as I stretched my hand out to him for the keys to my baby. He made to grab them but stopped upon seeing the empty key holder where I knew he no doubt put them.

"He snaked the keys," he said, causing me to growl with irritation.

"Guys, we got a bigger problem." We turned to look at Athena as she stood in the doorway of the bathroom.

"What?" Sam asked.

"Artemis is unconscious," she replied, causing Sam and I to look at one another before quickly heading toward the bathroom. We stopped dead in our tracks and I swore under my breath as Athena knelt down next to her to finish cleaning the cut along Artemis' forehead. She was propped up against the wall and I knew that Athena had moved her to that position to better help her.

"Did you just find her like this?" Sam asked.

"You two were too busy arguing about Gordon to notice she was here. I moved her to lean against the wall so that she would respond better to waking up. Gordon must of slammed her against the wall or something before taking off toward that nest," she replied with a shake of her head.

"Sam, pick her up and put her in the car. We're going to that nest," I said before I stalked out of the bathroom and out of the motel to my car. Throwing open the door, I got in and leaned down to where the wiring of the car was so that I could hotwire the car to start. I couldn't believe this. The guy had actually swiped my keys to keep us from going to that nest. I thought we saw eye to eye on this. Or did he actually think I was my brother?

"Which I'm going to kill him to," I thought, glancing back to Sam and Athena as Sam set Artemis into the back seat before getting into the front.

"This is un-fucking-believable. Is she awake?" I asked as I went back to trying to start up the car.

"She's coming to. He must of really smashed her head against the wall because I've never seen her out for this long after being slammed into a wall," Sam replied, causing me to nod before letting out a grunt of happiness when the car started up.

"The bridge. Is that all you got?" I asked, looking over at him as he looked at a map of the town.

"The bridge was four and a half minutes from their farm," he replied.

"How do you know?" I asked.

"I counted. They took a left out of the farm, then turned right onto a dirt road. Followed that for two minutes slightly uphill. Then took another quick right and we hit the bridge," he replied as he traced the map with his finger.

"You're good. A monster pain the ass, but you're good. Almost spooky good like the one in the back seat," I said, shaking my head in amazement.

"I'm not dead, you know." I glanced into the rearview mirror to find her giving me a slight glare despite the headache she must have been having.

"Hello to you too, princess," I said with sarcasm, causing her to roll her eyes and shift so that she was in a more comfortable position.

"What happen?" Sam asked as he turned to look at her.

"Gordon bashed my head into the wall. What more do you want to know?" she asked.

"Getting a little rusty, huh?" I asked as she glared at me.

"He was sitting at the table when I went into the bathroom to splash some water on my face. I didn't hear or see him until it was too late," she snapped, causing Sam to sigh and shake his head.

"You've got too much on your mind. It's screwing with your head at times," he said, causing her to roll her eyes.

"Nice observation, Captain Obvious," she snarked, causing me to shake my head and turn my attention back to the road. I wanted to say something, but I thought it best to keep my mouth shut at this point. The rest of the drive was pretty much quiet because I really didn't know what to say. I was still trying to process what Sam said about me letting Gordon in as a father figure. I was doing no such thing. I had buried my hurt and anger over my dad a long time ago, but apparently Sam seemed to think it was still an issue. Whatever. I had other things to worry about at this point and letting my little brother get under my skin was not one of them. It wasn't long before we arrived at the farm house that Sam had indicated and headed up toward the house.

"What in the bloody hell?" I looked at Artemis and then looked ahead as we came upon Gordon in the dining room table with a female tied to a chair and a knife covered in blood in one hand. Gordon looked up at us as he heard us approach.

"Sam, Dean, ladies. Come on in," Gordon said as he got up from the table.

"Hey, Gordon, what's going on?" I asked.

"Just poisoning Lenore here with some dead man's blood. She's gonna tell us where all her friends are," he replied, causing Artemis to scoff and shake her head.

"Are you bloody insane?" she asked.

"Not as insane as you are hunting in that," he replied, pointing at her.

"Oh I'm sorry. I didn't have time to change after you bashed my bloody fucking head into the wall," she snapped, causing me to hold out an arm to keep her from going after her.

"Yeah. Sorry about that. Had to do what I had to do. Want to help? Grab a knife. I was just about to start in on the fingers," he said as his gaze shifted from her to me before dragging the knife across the vampire's arm, causing the veins to turning a sickening red color.

"Whoa. Hey. Let's all just chill out, huh?" I asked when she started to gasp kind of harshly.

"I'm completely chill," he replied as he gave me a look.

"Gordon, put the knife down," Sam said as he started to walk forward, only stopping when Athena put her arm out to stop him.

"Sounds like it's Sammy that needs to chill," he said.

"Just step away from her, all right?" Athena asked, causing Gordon's gaze to flicker at each of us before stopping at Sam. He stared at Sam for a second before he tossed the knife down. Something didn't seem right.

*******Artemis' POV*******

"You're right. I'm wasting my time here," he said, causing me to raise an eyebrow in slight confusion and look toward Dean. He looked at me and I could see the same expression in his eyes. He was just as confused as I was and knew that something didn't seem right with a hunter giving up just that easy. Maybe it was the idea of four against one, but it still didn't matter. I hadn't trusted this Gordon character since the beginning and I didn't trust him now.

"This bitch will never talk again. Might as well put her out of her misery. I just sharpened it so it's completely humane," he said as he took out a hand size machete and gave Sam a look.

"Gordon, I'm letting her go," Sam said as he stepped toward him.

"You're not doing a damn thing," he said as he pointed the knife at Sam, causing me to move toward Sam. I only stopped when Sam put up a hand to let me know to stay put. It was his way of saying that he could handle it and that he didn't want me to get hurt. Normally I would ignore it, but I had to have trust in him. I knew he knew what he was doing.

"Hey, hey, hey. Gordon, let's talk about this," Dean said as he slowly started making his way around the table.

"What's there to talk about? It's like I said before, Dean. No shades of gray," Gordon said.

"Yeah, I hear you. And I know how you feel," he said.

"Do you?" Gordon asked as he gave him an incredulous look.

"Yeah. The vampire that killed your sister deserved to die. But this…"

"Killed my sister? That filthy fucking fang didn't kill my sister. It turned her. Made her one of them. So I hunted her down and I killed her myself," he said, not a trace of heartbreak in his voice.

"You did what?" Dean asked as he gave him a look of shock.

"Wasn't my sister anymore. It wasn't human. I didn't blink. Neither would you," he replied as he pointed the machete toward Dean.

"No wonder you're bloody insane," I said as I gave him a look of disgust.

"So you knew all along then? You knew about the vampires. They weren't killing anyone. You knew about the cattle and you just didn't care," Sam said, causing me to look at him in shock before the words he just said starting spinning in my head. The severed heads. The cattle mutilations. Athena's tale of how Sam escaped from the nest of vampires unscathed. Gordon's tale. It all fit. It wasn't an evil supernatural that we were hunting this time. This time a hunter was the evil. My suspicions were right. Gordon was definitely not a trustworthy hunter. He was a killer.

"You bloody bastard. You really don't care," I said.

"Care about what? A nest of vampires suddenly acting nice? Taking a little time-out from sucking people and we're suppose to buy that? Trust me. Doesn't change what they are. And I can prove it," he said. With a blink of an eye, he sliced Sam on the arm with the knife before holding it against his neck and turning him toward the vampire. I quickly drew out the hand gun from inside my jacket that I had grabbed from the trunk of the Impala before coming in and cocked it before aiming it at his head.

"Let him go," Dean said as he did the same. Gordon merely ignored us and moved Sam back further toward the vampire.

"Now," Dean snapped.

"Relax. If I wanted to kill him, he'd already be on the floor. Just making a little point," he said before he twisted Sam's arm so that blood started dripping onto the vampire's face, causing her fangs to suddenly coming out as she started hissing.

"Hey. That's enough," Athena snapped.

"You think she's so different? Still wanna save her? Look at her. They're all the same. Evil, blood-thirsty," he said, causing me to stare at her as she continued hissing. She was like every other vampire I had come across and she seemed no different, but there was something about her that made me think about what Athena heard from Sam about these vampires living off cow blood. Could some of them really not be as evil as we had thought? My thoughts were answered when I watched in shock as her fangs disappeared and she started coughing.

"No. No," she coughed, causing Athena and I to look at each other in shock. Well this was a new revelation.

"You heard her, Gordon?" Sam asked as she continued saying no. I kept my gun trained on Gordon as Dean slowly lowered his gun and Sam slowly pushed the knife away from his neck. I wasn't about to let something happen in just these few seconds.

"Sam, get her out of here," Dean said, causing Sam to nod and carefully pick her up.

"Don't bloody move," I snapped as Gordon made to move toward Sam, but stopped at my command. I nodded for Athena to follow him out while I covered Dean.

"Gordon, I think you and I got some things to talk about," he said as he slowly started walking toward Gordon. I had no idea what was going on inside that brain of his, but I knew to keep my mouth shut with the look that he had on his face. He meant serious business.

"Get out of my way," Gordon said.

"Sorry," he said, shaking his head as I slowly started walking around the other side of the table to block Gordon if he tried to dart the other way.

"You're not serious," Gordon said as he gave a look of disbelief.

"Having a hard time believing it, but I know what I saw. If you want those vampires, you gotta go through me. And besides, see that female hunter on the other side of this table? I got to go home with her after this is all over. I've got enough problems to deal with when it comes to here and I really don't need to have my ass kicked all over the place," he said as he motioned his head in my direction, causing me to roll my eyes but shake my head at the same time. At least he was admitting we had problems. It was a start. I watched as Gordon stared between the two of us for about a minute before he slammed the machete into the table and looked back at Dean. Looking at me, I shrugged and put my gun into safety. Nodding in understanding, Dean slid the bullets out of the bottom of his gun and put them in his pocket. However, he took his eye off of Gordon for once second and that allowed Gordon to slam his fist in Dean's face. I reacted as quickly as I could, but I found myself being slammed against the table with a knife almost in my throat had Dean not pulled him off of me.

"What are you doing, man? You're doing this for a fang? Come on, Dean. We're on the same side here," Gordon said as they took to fighting each other.

"I don't think so, you sadistic bastard," he snapped before Gordon landed a pretty good hit before kicking him into the next room, breaking a small table in the process. Gordon seemed to sense me behind him and before I could pull the trigger on my gun, he back kicked me before turning around and throwing me against the dining room table, causing me to hit the same spot on my forehead that I had when he smashed my head against the wall. The cut started bleeding and I could feel my energy start to drain as I lied there watching Gordon walk toward Dean, who was struggling to get up.

"You're not like your brother. You're a killer. Like me," he said, causing Dean to kick his feet out from underneath him and lay a few good punches to him before throwing him into a china cabinet. By the time I pulled myself to my feet, Gordon was slightly unconscious and I watched with slight amusement as Dean "accidentally" banged Gordon's head against the wall as he dragged him back into the dining room.

"You alright?" he asked as he threw Gordon into a chair. I nodded and watched as he pulled a rope out of the bag Gordon had brought with him.

"You know? I might be like you and I might not. But you're the one tied up right now," Dean said to him before he walked toward me, grabbing me by the arm and making me sit in the chair that the vampire had been sitting in just a few minutes earlier.

"What are you doing?" I asked, watching in slight confusion as he dug through Gordon's bag and pulled out a small first aid kit.

"That cut looks pretty nasty. And since we can't go anywhere until Sammy and Athena get back, I thought I might patch that up for you before it gets infected and I have Sammy on my ass for not looking after you properly," he replied, causing me to chuckle just slightly.

"You always do what Sam says?" I asked, causing him to smirk just slightly.

"Not really. Guess it's just instinct to take care of you," he replied, causing me to study him for a second as he gently cleaned at the cut before cracking a small smile.

"Maybe you do still have a heart, Dean," I said softly, causing him to give me a look before shaking his head. Chick flick moments were still not his thing, but I could tell he was contemplating and accepting my comment. He still had a heart and maybe he did care.

* * *

"We miss anything?" I let my eyes shift open as Sam and Athena came walking into the room, looking at Gordon and then at Dean and my self. Stretching myself from the position I had fallen into, I saw that it was daylight and that Sam and Athena must have helped out the rest of the nest while Dean and I played babysitter for most of the night.

"Not much. Lenore get out ok?" Dean asked.

"Yeah. All of them did," Athena replied with a nod.

"Then I guess our work here is done. How you doing, Gordy? You gotta tinkle yet? Alright. Well, get comfy. We'll call someone in two or three days. Have them come out and untie you," Dean said as he slammed the machete knife into the table.

"You guys ready to go?" Sam asked as he looked at Athena and I. We nodded and headed for the door, but stopped when we realized that Dean wasn't exactly following.

"Not yet," he replied as he walked around Gordon to the front of him, causing me to raise an eyebrow in confusion. What the bloody hell was he about to do?

"I guess this is goodbye. Well, it's been real," he said before he turned to walk away but turned back around and knocked Gordon to the ground with a punch. I felt my jaw drop in shock before placing my hand over my mouth to stifle the laughter wanting to erupt.

"Ok. I'm good now. We can go," he said as he turned around and walked out of the room. Looking at each other, the three of us merely shrugged and followed him outside. I was glad to see the sunlight and although I was aching and in need of a shower, I was feeling alright.

"Sam?" Dean asked, causing me to snap out of my thoughts and look over at him.

"Yeah?" he asked as he turned to look at his brother.

"Clock me on," Dean replied, causing Athena and I to look at one another before looking back at the brothers. Had Dean taken one too many hits in the head from Gordon last night or something? Was he seriously asking to be punched?

"What?" he asked as he too gave Dean a crazy look.

"Come on. Come on. I won't even hit you back. Let's go," Dean replied, causing Sam to scoff and shake his head.

"No," he said.

"Let's go. You get a freebie. Hit me. Come on," Dean said.

"Dean, are you bloody insane?" I asked.

"She's right. You look like you just went 12 rounds with a block of cement, Dean. I'll take a rain check," Sam said as he started walking toward the Impala.

"I wish we never took this job. It's jacked up everything," he said, causing me to stop from getting into the Impala and give him a quizzical look.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Think about the hunts we went on. Our whole lives. Your life. Athena's life," he replied.

"Uh…okay," Sam said as he looked to us for help, but we could merely shrug because we were just as lost as he was on this whole thing and where Dean was going with it.

"What if we killed things that didn't deserve killing? I mean, the way dad raised us…"

"Dean, after what happened to mom, dad did the best he could," Sam said.

"I know he did. But the man wasn't perfect. And the way he raised us to hate those things? I mean, I don't know how Athena's parents raised her to be or how exactly Artemis sees things the way she does because of how she grew up, but still. And, man, I hate them. I do. When I killed that vampire at the mill, I didn't even think about it. Hell, I even enjoyed it," he said.

"You didn't kill Lenore," I said, causing him to look at me and sigh.

"Well, yeah, but every instinct told me to. I was gonna kill her. Kill them all," he said.

"Yeah, Dean, but you didn't. And that's what matters," Sam said as I nodded.

"You've got a heart deep down inside of you. You care no matter if we hate you for not showing. You care and you have that heart of gold," I said, causing him to look over at me. I could see all of these emotions swimming in his eyes and it hurt me to know he was feeling like he was with everything else that was going on.

"She's right. You have a heart. You didn't kill her and that's what matters," Sam said.

"Yeah. And because you're a pain in the ass," Dean said, causing Sam to chuckle.

"I guess I might have to stick around and be a pain in the ass then," he said.

"Thanks," Dean said, causing Sam to nod.

"Don't mention it," he said.

"So, now that we have this lovely chick flick moment over with, do we know if this case helped us out at all in finding Kiki?" I asked.

"Vampires didn't know anything about any demon attack on us. They hadn't heard anything, so this case was kind of a bust," Athena replied.

"So we keep looking. Checking out as many cases as we can until we find something. These demons aren't stupid but they're not smart either. We'll find her and when we find her, we'll kill the evil sons of bitches who took her and are trying to destroy our lives," Dean said as he turned his gaze from behind him to us. I looked around to Sam and Athena as they nodded before looking over to Dean. I gave him a nod and I could tell how serious he was about this. He wasn't pretending to care or acting like an ignorant jerk about the whole thing like he was earlier. He was dead serious and I knew that this case with the vampires had changed the whole perspective he had about hunting the supernatural. And I think he realized how much he saw himself in Sam. The way Sam lost Kiki in those few short hours no doubt caused Dean to see himself losing me the way that he did. I could tell in his eyes how much he was hurting and how much he cared, but although he haunted my dreams every night for a year since he the day he walked away from everything, I couldn't do it right now. I couldn't drop the walls like I did a year ago.

I couldn't let my family history destroy my life again.


	3. Chapter 2: CSPWDT

**Breath of Life**

**Disclaimer****:** I do not own any of the Supernatural characters as they are the property of the CW. I do, however, own Artemis, Kiki, Athena, and any other characters introduced within the story as they are sole property of my mind.

* * *

**Summary****: **Zombies, ghosts, demons, and all other supernatural she could handle. The disappearance of her best friend and the confused feelings for Dean she wasn't sure she could handle. Drawn back into hunting after nearly a year, 24 year old Artemis Flora Summers sets out once again with the Winchester boys and her old friend, Athena, to figure out who is behind the kidnapping of Kiki and why they want her. However, things begin to take unexpected turns when Artemis finds herself facing more of her past as her connection to Sam becomes more apparent and strong. What happens when she realizes that she's destined to follow in the footsteps of her ancestors? Can she shed those icy layers again to allow Sam and Dean, especially Dean, back in? Or has she finally met her end?

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**Author's Note****:** Hello my readers! I am soooo sorry for not updating since January. It's been a rough couple of months for me between school and personal life. I've missed updating this story. I hope to have several chapters up in the next couple of days/weeks now that it is summer and although I have three classes to attend to, I have a lot more time free than during fall and spring semester.

Just a few little side notes…I know the timeline is off just a bit than the series, but it is for good reason with how everything ended with my last story. So please don't object or fuss about the timeline being about a year or so ahead. Remember that I had to focus on Artemis just a bit with the last story. The timeline will help with how this story progress in terms of Artemis and Kiki's disappearance. Also, the ending of the chapter is a little bit different than the ending of episode because I had to center it around a big focus point that has to do with Artemis and Sam with the yellow-eyed demon. But I won't say anything else about it until you've read the chapter.

But anyways, thanks so much to all who have reviewed since the last posting and I hope that this satisfies some of that hunger until the next update. Continue to review and enjoy!

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**Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things**

"There is absolutely nothing that I can find that will help us find Kiki. It's like the entire supernatural world is slowing down. I can't find a single thing in the newspaper databases online that could give us a clue or lead us closer to her."

"Don't jinx us, Athena. I don't need something coming after me while I'm sleeping tonight just because you said that."

"Oh yes. Dean molesting you in your sleep should definitely be something to worry about. I mean, out of everything that we've ever hunted in our entire lives, that sounds pretty painful and probably deadly. Wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of that. Ow! Damn you, Artemis!" I merely gave her a satisfied smirk before reaching over the front seat for another bottle of water and settling back into my seat with my sketch book.

"Enough you two. We don't need any fighting right now. There's enough of it in the motel rooms between Bonnie and Clyde over here," Sam said as he shook his head, causing Dean to snort.

"That's the best comparison that you could come up with, Sam, to describe us? Bonnie and Clyde? What are we now? Murderers?" he asked as he gave his brother a sharp look, causing me to lean over the seat and give him an eye roll.

"Do you even know your history, Dean? Bonnie and Clyde were well-known outlaws, robbers, and criminals during the Great Depression. It could describe all four of us if you really think about it and really think about what this bloody life of hunting the supernatural is all about. Besides what I contribute, we're traveling the country on stolen credit cards. No doubt that would make us a little bit like Bonnie and Clyde. Except without holding up bloody banks and stuff like that," I said.

"And like I said…"

"Sam, there is no way to tell if Bonnie and Clyde fought like Dean and I do. That would be historically incorrect and for you to be bloody incorrect would be like the world coming to a bloody end," I said as I gave Sam a "duh" kind of look. He stared at me for a second before shaking his head.

"I sometimes wonder about all that knowledge you store in that brain of yours. I'm beginning to think that maybe Dean's right about you being a bigger encyclopedia of weirdness than me," he said, causing me to chuckle before leaning back into my seat.

"So what do we do now? We haven't got any cases and we haven't gotten any thing in the newspapers or whatnot in the last couple of weeks. Every lead we've gotten has turned into a dead end. We just can't sit here and be ducks," Athena said.

"Which leads me to ask this question. Where are we going? I mean, we left the motel early this morning and made a few convenient store stops along the way for food and such, but we've been driving for hours now. We normally just stay put for a day or two before a case comes up, but no case has come up or whatever. So where are we going?" I asked.

"We're going to visit our mom's grave," Sam replied, causing Athena and I to stop what we were doing before looking at each other and then up to the two brothers.

"You're mom has a grave? I thought that there was no body," I said, causing Sam to shrug.

"It's better than nothing," he said, causing Dean to sigh and shake his head.

"Come on, Sam. I'm begging you. This is stupid. Going to visit mom's grave? Artemis is on the money with the fact that she doesn't have a grave. There was no body left after the fire," Dean said.

"She has a headstone," he said.

"Put up by her uncle. A man we've never met. So you want to go pay your respects to a slab of granite put up by a stranger?" Dean asked, causing Sam to shake his head in slight irritation.

"That's not the point," he replied.

"Enlighten me then," Dean said.

"It's not about a body or a casket. It's about her memory, okay? I'm sure that if you asked Artemis, she's probably been to see both her father's and her mother's graves since their deaths. And her mother died just like ours," he said, causing me to nod when they both gave me a look.

"My dad is buried in Los Angeles next to my grandparents and my mother has a gravestone in a burial plot bought for the Summers family during the 1800s when George IV was the head of the monarchy in Britain. No matter if you are disowned in our family, your name and body go into the cemetery. Or in this case, my mother's name and spirit live in the wall," I said.

"See? I'm not the only one that wants to remember someone's memory. And after dad and Kiki and everything we've been through since his death, it just feels like the right thing to do," he said as he looked back over to his brother.

"It's irrational is what it is," Dean said, causing me to roll my eyes. Typical Dean.

"Look, man, no one asked you to come," he said.

"Why don't we swing by the Roadhouse instead? We haven't heard from the demon in a few months. We should be hunting that son of a bitch down," Dean said.

"That's a good idea. You should. Just drop me off. I'll hitch a ride and I'll meet up with the three of you tomorrow," he said, causing Dean to scoff.

"Right. I'll be stuck with those people and making awkward small talk until you show up. On top of dealing with those two in the back, no thanks," Dean said, shaking his head. I merely rolled my eyes and went back to the drawing I was working on. However, I stopped when Dean's words about the yellow-eyed demon finally filtered through my brain.

"You guys went after the demon?" I asked as I leaned back between the two brothers to give them a look.

"Just a couple of leads that turned out to be dead ends," Sam replied.

"And you didn't think to let me know? That I would possibly want to be there went he gets killed?" I asked as I gave him a look.

"You seemed so wrapped up in your work in England. I didn't want to bother you with something that may have turned out false," he replied, causing me to give him an incredulous look before popping him in the back of the head hard.

"You bloody jerk! You didn't think I would drop everything I was doing over there to come back to see that the bloody demon responsible for my mother's death was killed? What are you thinking? Are you bloody insane?" I asked as he gave me a look before shaking his head.

"Whatever you say, Artemis," he said, causing me to let out a frustrated scream and throw myself back into my seat. Athena looked at me but didn't say anything as she went back to doing whatever she had been doing, which I was grateful for because I didn't want to say or do something I would regret. She was the only family I had left. I just couldn't believe Sam would do something like this to me. Not tell me about the demon. The leads he had over the year I had been in England and not tell me about them. I would have dropped everything I was doing to come back and fight. I wanted the bloody son of a bitch dead just as much as the Winchester boys. Damn them to bloody hell.

* * *

**Dean's POV**

"Did you know your brother was keeping that from me?" I looked up from the gravestone I was reading to look at Artemis as she stared slightly over toward my brother before looking at me.

"I didn't even know you were in England. So we're pretty much even with Sam keeping things from us about the other. Although I still think you're number one for that," I said, causing her to give me a dirty look before away from me. Rolling my eyes and glancing back toward my brother to make sure nothing was going wrong, I headed after her.

"So why didn't you tell me you were in England for almost a year?" I asked, causing her to give me a look before rolling her eyes.

"That question has an obvious answer, Dean. I don't think you need me to tell you that," she replied.

"Oh yes. You didn't speak to me for a year," I said with sarcasm, causing her to stop and give me a glare.

"I didn't speak to you for a year? Oh no. Do not put the bloody blame on me. You were the one that said it was a mistake and told me to take care of myself. To call Sam if I ever needed anything. You were the one that shut the door. I am not going to have this bloody conversation with you again with you putting the god damn bloody blame on me for not talking. Sam could have told you himself where I was if you were that worried," she snapped, causing me to narrow my eyes.

"Do you honestly think Sam would have told me where you were? He's almost as bad as you at keeping things from people," I said.

"Well if that's true, I must have definitely picked the wrong brother because it seems to me that you're saying that me and Sam have way more in common than you and I ever did. Great observation, Einstein. I'll be sure to let Sam know so we can get together while Kiki is missing. Thanks for the idea, Dean," she snapped, sarcasm dripping her words. It took a second before her words sunk in, causing me to give her a glare. She merely flipped me the finger before walking away.

"Damn woman," I muttered, shaking my head before making to follow her. However, I stopped as I spotted a tree not far from me that looked a little under watered.

"Hey Artemis?" I called, causing her to stop and give me a look.

"What now, Dean?" she asked.

"Come here a second," I replied, causing her to sigh but walk back toward me as I made my way to the tree. It looked like it hadn't been watered in years. It looked…

"Dead," Artemis said as if she had read my mind.

"Yeah. It looks like it hasn't been watered in years," I said with a nod.

"Dean?" I looked away from examining the tree to look at her, raising an eyebrow in confusion as she stared at the ground before looking up to me and then the tree. Taking the hint, I looked down to the ground and realized that the grass was also looking dead. Stepping back to examine it further, I saw that there was an entire circle of dead grass next to the tree.

"Dean?" I looked to Artemis and saw her staring at something poking up from the ground.

"It's someone's grave," she said as she looked up at me.

"A grave?" I asked, causing her to nod.

"Dean, something isn't right this grave. Everything is dead surrounding it. Have you ever seen like this in all the years you've been hunting?" she asked, causing me to shake my head.

"No. Why don't you go back to Sam and Kiki and I'm going to go find someone to see what I can figure out about this grave. We might have stumbled upon something," I said, causing her to nod and head back toward the Impala. Sighing, I went off in search of a grounds keeper. A short while later I thanked the grounds keeper and headed back toward the Impala where the other three were waiting. However, I stopped short and raised an eyebrow at the sight before me.

"What makes you think that you're right about this?"

"How can I be wrong, Sam? You know as well as Dean and Athena that I've been spot on just about every hunt we've been on since the abduction of Kiki."

"And that makes me real suspicious, Artemis. Ever since you came back from your little trip, you've been acting really strange. A lot stranger than usual. Especially with the increased ability of your mind skills. Your sense of remembering is almost perfect than it was a year ago and you've been eerily correct about a lot of these hunts. I don't think you were just visiting when you went to England. You were researching or something," Sam said, causing Artemis to scoff.

"Whatever you say, Sam. It's really none of your bloody business what I was doing in England. You can be as suspicious as you want, but I am not hiding anything. You know how that ended the last time we were all together," she snapped, causing me to sigh in irritation.

"Enough! That's enough out of the two of you!" I yelled, causing them to stop arguing with one another and look a me.

"Thank god. I was beginning to get a headache," Athena said as she shook her head.

"That's enough out of you two. I hate to be Sam, or Athena for that matter, but arguing is going to get us nowhere in finding Kiki. Or solving this case. If it is a case," I said as I gestured to the paper in my hand the grounds keeper gave to me.

"You can't be serious," Sam said as he gave me a look.

"Angela Mason. She was a student at the local college. Funeral was three days ago," I said.

"And?" he asked.

"Sam, you saw her grave. Everything dead around it in a perfect circle. You don't think that's a little weird?" I asked.

"Maybe the grounds keeper went a little aggro with pesticide," he replied, causing me to shake my head.

"No, I asked him. I asked him. No pesticide, no chemicals. Nobody can explain it," I replied.

"Ok. So what are you thinking?" he asked.

"Something doesn't seem right here, Sam. Your head may be thick but it's not that bloody thick. You know that it's weird that everything is dead in a perfect circle around this girl's grave. There is something going on here," Artemis replied, causing him to roll his eyes.

"Could you possibly be quiet for one minute? Nobody is asking for a comment from the peanut gallery," he said.

"Excuse me? How dare…"

"That's enough. It could possibly be unholy ground," I said as I cut back in before another fight could break out.

"Unholy ground?" Sam asked as he gave me an incredulous look.

"What? If something evil happened, it could easily poison the ground. Remember the farm outside of Cedar Rapids? It could be a sign of demonic presence. Or the Angela girl's spirit, if it's powerful enough," I replied, causing him to give me a look before he shook his head and opened the door to the passenger side.

"Don't get too excited, Sam. You might pull something. We wouldn't want that to happen if we get an actual hunt," Artemis said, causing him to stop and look over at her.

"You know something? I don't ever remember you being this nasty and sarcastic. Especially with me. What is wrong with you lately?" he asked.

"What's wrong with me? What's wrong with you? Oh wait. You're wife was abducted and we've got nothing on her. But wait. We just possibly stumbled upon something that could be a clue. A clue we haven't had in maybe a few weeks. And what's your reaction? Oh wait. It can't possibly be a bloody hunt because we don't ever just stumble upon a hunt," she said, causing his eyes to narrow and him to stalk toward her.

"You know something, Artemis? That's low. Even for the bitch that you are. I can't believe you would even stoop that low to say something like that, especially since she's one of your best friends. How could…"

"Alright! That's enough! If I didn't know any better, the two of you were starting to act like Dean and Artemis do when they're together. I can not believe you two," Athena snapped, causing both Artemis and Sam to stop fighting and look at her in shock. I was somewhat impressed though. Although she was a snaky and sarcastic most of the time, she was a really quiet girl with an undercover attitude that only shined at moment's like this. I could tell why she was like Artemis' big sister. It could also explain a bit of Artemis' personality.

"Now Dean thinks he found something and we're going to see if maybe it is something. It could also be a clue for Kiki. We haven't had anything for a few weeks. So what if it may be a bust," she said, causing Sam to shake his head in disbelief.

"How do we even know it's legitimate? I mean, stumbling upon a hunt? Here? Of all places?" he asked.

"So? Athena's right. It may be a dead end but it's at least worth a shot. You've been driving me nuts with wanting to find Kiki and wondering when we're going to have out next clue. Well here it possible could be," I replied.

"How can you be sure that it's a hunt? Are you even sure this is about a hunt? Not about something else?" he asked, causing me to give him a look.

"What else would it be about?" I asked, not liking where this was going.

"You know what? Just forget it," he replied as he made to get into the car.

"You can believe what you want, Sam. But I let you drag my ass out here. The least we can do is check this out," I snapped, causing him to give me a look before shaking his head.

"Yep. Fine," he said.

"Girl's dad works in town. He's a professor at the school. We'll drop the two girls off at a motel and then we'll go talk to him. See what we can find out," I said, causing him to nod before getting into the car. Athena gave a shake to her head before getting in as well.

"What was that all about?" I looked over at Artemis and rolled my eyes.

"Nothing. Get in the car. When you get checked into the motel, see what you can dig up about Angela Mason. Records, history, etc.," I said, causing her to give me a look of "you're a liar," but kept her mouth shut and gave me a nod before getting into the car. I sighed and shook my head before also getting into the car and heading out of the cemetery toward the town. Glancing over at my brother, I felt my blood boil just a little bit at what he said. This whole hunt wasn't about anything but what the hunt was. I knew he was implying dad's death and what not, but that had been almost a year and a half back. With everything that had happened with Artemis and the past year, I pushed everything about it into the back of my mind. I couldn't believe he was trying to bring it back to light. A short while later, we dropped the girls off before heading toward the school where the girl's father worked.

"You want to tell me what's going on between you and Artemis?" I asked, breaking the silence to look at my brother.

"Not really, but knowing you, you're not going to shut up about it," he replied.

"What is going on? You know that even before she went off on her own that she was mostly right about the hunts we were on," I said.

"That's not the point, Dean," he said.

"Then what is?" I asked, causing him to sigh.

"She's changed, Dean," he replied, causing me to snort in laughter.

"Change? The damn girl is still the same girl that was a pain in my ass a year ago when we were hunting together," I said.

"She's changed, Dean, and I know you've noticed it. Her memory and her skills have increased since the last time we saw her. I think something happened while she was in England. And I don't think it was just visiting," he said.

"What do you mean? I mean, since you were nice enough not to call me and let me know that Artemis was running wild all over England by herself, I can't really make that call for myself," I said with a bit of sarcasm, causing him to roll his eyes.

"Get over it, Dean. You ditched her in the hospital and broke her heart. Yes she broke your heart too, but she left to get away from everything just for a little bit. She just wasn't suppose to be gone as long as she was," he said.

"How long was she suppose to be gone?" I asked.

"About two weeks," he replied.

"But she said she was gone for 6 months," I said as I gave him a confused look.

"Yeah. She was. But it was actually a little bit longer. More like 7 to 8 months. She came home after 6 months but traveled a few times back to England to make it seem longer. She used to call me every day to let me know how she was. She would spend about an hour to two hours telling me about all the things she had done and what she had been to see. Bu then they started to get shorter and more distant," he said.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"The calls started to be about 20 minutes long and then 10 minutes. And then they would be about 5 minutes. The calls started coming far between one another also. They went from every day to every other day to once a week to once a month. Finally they stopped coming," he said, causing me to give him a bewildered look.

"Please tell me you got on a plane to go find her," I said.

"I didn't have to. The day before Kiki and I were set to head out to London we got a phone call from her. She was phoning us to let us know that she would be arriving two days later at the airport and she would appreciate it if we could come pick her up. It was really weird the way she sounded," he said.

"How did she sound?" I asked.

"Distant. Unfocused. Like she was hiding something. Dean, I'm worried about her. Her memory has sharpened, her hunting skills have been tweaked to be almost perfect, and she hasn't shown one bit of emotion other than sarcasm and anger. This isn't Artemis, Dean, and you know it," he replied, causing me to sigh as I shut pulled into the parking lot and shut off the car.

"So what do you suggest we do, Sam? Push her into telling us? Remember how well that went over the last time?" I asked, causing him to sigh.

"She was drowning herself, Dean, and she's going to do it again. I just don't know how to help her. I can feel her starting to go down a bad path again," he replied, causing me to sigh.

"Look, Artemis and I don't get along. We can never seem to get along, but I don't know what to say with this. I mean…"

"You still have feelings for her, Dean. You just won't admit it. Ever since dad died and you both were nearly lost, you tried to fill that empty spot with Artemis. Once she was gone, you had to figure out some other way to do it. And now that she's back, you don't know what to do with yourself," he said as he gave me a pointed look, causing me to scoff and get out of the car.

"I don't want to talk about it, Sam. You know something? Every time we end up talking about Artemis, it always ends up with you trying to talk me into talking about my feelings. Well you know what? Don't. You want to help her out with her feelings and the mystery behind her trip, you go right ahead. I may question and get irritated because she won't answer me, but whatever. Let's just get some answers out of this girl's father. Enough is enough," I said as I slammed the door shut and headed up the stairs to the house. I could hear Sam sigh and shut the passenger side door to join me, but I kept myself turned toward the door. I was so confused. So filled with emotions I refused to let myself show.

"Damn it, Sam," I thought as I shook my head. I was going to kick his ass and Artemis' as well when I got a hold of her. Those two were going to be the death of me.

* * *

**Artemis' POV**

"Dean's on his way back from the boyfriend's house. It turns out that the boyfriend died last night. Slit his own throat. Room mate said that he was in such grief over Angela's death, including seeing her everywhere he went. Doesn't sound to me like this isn't nothing. Seems we have a possible case. Maybe a clue to finding Kiki."

"That's cool."

"Sam's watching the skin channel."

"That's nice."

"What the hell are you drawing? Artemis? Hello? Earth to Artemis. Artemis!" I snapped out of what seemed like a trance and looked up to see Athena looking down at me with a worried expression.

"What?" I asked.

"Did you hear anything I just said to you about the case?" she asked, causing me to give her a look.

"So it's definitely a case?" I asked, causing her to roll her eyes as she caught the sarcasm in my voice.

"I think it is. What the hell are you drawing?" she asked, causing me to look back at my sketch book and the drawing that I had been working on. It was of a cemetery at night with black smoke coming out of what looked like a burial monument.

"I don't know. I saw this in a dream the other night. It was kind of freaky," I said, causing her to give me a look.

"Are you having visions again?" she asked, causing me to give a snort of laughter and a shake of my head.

"No. That was just a one time thing back when the yellow-eyed demon was close by Sam and I. I haven't heard a thing about the demon in over a year and I would know if Sam was having visions because we share this freaky connection or something. No, it was just a dream. More like a nightmare actually," I replied.

"As in a "it feels real" nightmare?" she asked, causing me to shrug.

"I couldn't tell. I woke up as quickly as I went to sleep. I'm sure it's nothing," I replied.

"Nothing? Things like that never mean nothing when it comes to you or Sam. Which by the way, have you even talked to Sam at all?" she asked, causing me to sigh and shake my head.

"We're too bloody fucked up in the head to do any discussing at this point," I said.

"You know you're going to have to talk to him soon. You and Dean fighting with one another and throwing snaky remarks every chance you get is enough. You and Sam arguing and not speaking to one another is something we don't need," she said.

"Sam and I will work it out when we decide to work it out. Besides, here comes Dean," she said as the Impala roared into the parking lot and came to a stop in front of us. Dean got out and walked right up the stairs to the motel room, not even stopping to say anything to us. As soon as he disappeared through the door, I looked to Athena, who shrugged.

"He creeps me out just a little bit. He didn't even make a snarky remark. Something is wrong with him. Let's go," she said, pulling me up off the ground and up to the room. Upon entering, we saw Sam sitting on the bed and Dean giving his brother a glare as he talked.

"Maybe? Sam, I know how to do my job, despite what you might think," he snapped.

"We should check out the guy's apartment," Sam said after a moment of silence.

"He just came from there," I said, depositing my sketch book onto one of the beds before perching myself on the dresser.

"And?" Sam asked.

"A pile of dead plants. Just like the cemetery. Hell, dead goldfish too," he replied.

"So unholy ground?" Sam asked.

"It can't be. That doesn't make sense in itself. Holy ground is something like a church or cemetery that doesn't allow spirits or whatnot to pass onto it. If there are dead plants dead and goldfish, which is no doubt this guy's fault for not taking proper bloody care of them, it can't be a spirit. Have any of you seen something to this magnitude of a spirit's power? Bloody unholy ground my ass," I replied.

"I've got to agree with Artemis. I don't think it may be a spirit we're dealing with. We would of felt it by now or even seen the ghost. We're like magnets to them since we're hunters and they don't particularly like us for that reason," Athena said.

"I'll take to that. I'm not getting that powerful angry-spirit vibe from Angela. I have been reading this though," Dean said as he got up, grabbing a book that was lying right next to me and holding it up.

"You stole the girl's diary?" Sam asked as Dean handed the diary to me, causing me to open the latched and begin flipping through it. It was a typical girl's diary filled with talk of boys, shopping, etc. Something I would definitely never do with Dean being around. He'd use it against me.

"Yeah, Sam, I did. If anything, the girl's a little too nice," he replied.

"I'll second that. Who writes about what they bought on a shopping trip with girlfriends? Or where your boyfriend takes you to dinner? Is this what it's like to be a normal girl?" I asked, causing Sam to give me a look.

"Not the point, Artemis. So what do you want to do?" he asked as he looked to his brother.

"Keep digging, talk to her friends. See what we can find," Dean replied.

"You get any names talking to the room mate?" Athena asked.

"Are you bloody kidding me? He stole her best friend in the whole world from her room while he was there. This thing has to be the biggest clue we've got," I replied as I held the diary up before tossing it to Sam.

"See what you can find out. Athena, let's go see if we can rummage up some food," Dean said as he headed out the door. Athena gave Sam and I a look before heading out after him, leaving Sam and I alone together. I looked over at him and studied him for a minute as he leafed through the diary before sighing and hopping down off the dresser.

"Something wrong?" he asked, looking up at me as I rifled through the dresser for some clean clothes.

"No. I'm just going to grab some clean clothes and go take a shower. Dean will probably want to go check out some leads that diary might give us," I replied. He stared at me for a second before sighing and shutting the diary.

"Art, we're going to have to talk sooner or later. We can't keep avoiding each other and we definitely can't stay angry with one another. That's your job with Dean," he said.

"There isn't really anything to talk about, Sam. It's no big deal. It's done and over with, so let's just move on. I'm going to take a shower," I said as I grabbed my clothes and headed toward the bathroom. However, I stopped for a split second as I felt a severe migraine beginning to form.

"Artemis?" Sam asked as I heard him stand up from the bed.

"I'm fine, Sam. Just a slight migraine beginning to form," I replied as I shook my head and continued to head toward the bathroom. However, the pain increased ten times and I let out a cry as I stumbled forward, my head hitting the corner of the side table next to the bed quite hard.

"Artemis!" But the sound of Sam's voice disappeared as the pain struck my brain like electricity and I was plunged into darkness.

* * *

_I let out a groan as I felt cold air rush along my body and around my face, forcing me to let my eyes flutter open despite my head being in so much pain. Forcing myself to sit up, holding my head slightly to ease a bit of the pounding, I let my eyes wander around to figure out where I was. Taking in the sight around me, my eyes widened as I realized where I was._

_A cemetery._

_And it just wasn't any cemetery. It was the cemetery from my dreams._

"_Charming place, isn't it?" I whirled around and backed up immediately, my hands automatically going to my jeans for my gun._

"_Are you forgetting that you're dreaming?" the man asked as he let out a low chuckle, his yellow eyes looking quite amused as if taunting me._

"_What do you want?" I asked._

"_Just checking to see how my favorite girl was doing. I haven't been to your dreams in quite a while. And I also heard that you've been fighting with Sam Winchester," he replied, causing me to give him a glare._

"_So what? You got your little spies spying on me to make sure I don't do anything stupid, such as offing myself? How much are you paying them an hour? One human body for all eternity?" I asked, sarcasm dripping off my tongue. He gave me a look before smirking. I let out a slight cry as my body slammed into a tree, my head hitting it pretty hard._

"_Still too cheeky and snarky for my liking, but what can I say? It runs in your family," he said, causing me to scowl._

"_What do you want from me?" I asked, causing him to chuckle._

"_You know what I want from you. I'm just making sure that you're not screwing the rest up," he replied._

"_Go to hell," I snapped, causing him to chuckle._

"_I'll be seeing you there," he said before he touched the side of my face, forcing me to let out another cry of pain before darkness swallowed me._

"She's waking up. Athena, get me a glass of water. Artemis? Artemis, can you hear me?" I sucked in a big breath of air as my entire body jerked upward and my eyes flew open, hacking as I tried to keep the air flow coming through my lungs. Taking in Dean and Sam's worried looks and their arms keeping me from falling backwards again to the floor, my dream came back to me at rushing speed.

"Oh god," I muttered as I tried to get up, only to be pushed back by both Sam and Dean.

"Don't get up. Just sit there a minute. Drink," Sam said as Athena appeared and handed him a glass of water. Taking a few sips, I let out a sigh as I finally had my breathing back to normal. God damn demon.

"Artemis, are you alright?" Sam asked, causing me to nod.

"Yeah. I'm fine. I just got a major migraine," I replied.

"That caused you to scream in pain and hit your head on the side table next to the bed as you were falling to the floor? I may be thick headed, remember? But I'm not that stupid. Artemis, what is going on?" Sam asked, causing me to sigh since I knew I wasn't going to be let up if I didn't start speaking.

"Fine. I had a nightmare. Satisfied?" I asked.

"Not particularly. Artemis, your nightmares have never been like this before. Did they just recently start?" Athena asked.

"No. I've been getting them for quite a while. Probably right after I arrived in England," I replied.

"Do they mean anything? Visions? What?" Dean asked.

"No visions. Sam would know, remember? It's always the same thing. My parents' grave," I replied.

"Does it have anything to do with that picture you were drawing earlier?" Athena asked.

"No. That's a different nightmare. I think this job is getting to me a bit too much. Are you done questioning me? I'd like to go take a shower like I was before I passed out. Am I alright to get up?" I asked. Sam studied me for a minute before nodding his head and gently pulled me into a standing position. I wobbled for a split second before I was ok and headed off to the bathroom, three sets of eyes on me as I shut the door and slid to the floor. I knew they knew I wasn't telling them everything, especially Sam, but I just couldn't tell them right now. We had enough on our hands and they just didn't need to get involved with it. I couldn't believe I was sinking back into my old habits. I was so screwed.

* * *

**Dean's POV**

"I didn't realize the college employed grief counselors."

"Oh, yeah. Yeah, you talk, we listen. Maybe throw in a therapeutic collage. Whatever helps jump-start the healing." I rolled my eyes but leaned against the porch railing as I listened to Dean and Sam talk to Angela's friend, Neil. Sam had found him in her diary right before I had my episode and figured he would be a good start into the case.

"Well, I think I'm okay. Thanks," he said before he turned to go back inside his house.

"Well, you heard what happened to Matt Harrison, right?" Sam asked, causing the guy to turn back around and nod.

"Yeah, I did," he replied.

"We just wanted to make sure you were okay. Grief can make people do crazy things," Sam said, causing Neil to look at him before letting his gaze drift to Dean, Athena, and myself and then back to Sam.

"Look, I'm sorry about what happened to him. I am. But if Matt killed himself, it wasn't because of grief," he said, causing me to raise an eyebrow.

"If it wasn't because of grief, then what was it?" I asked.

"It was guilt. Angie's death was Matt's fault and he knew it," he replied.

"How was Matt responsible?" Sam asked.

"You know, she really loved that guy. But the night of the accident, she walked in on him with another girl. She was really torn up about it. That's why she crashed the car. Um, look, I got to get ready for work. So thanks for the concern, but seriously, I'll be okay," he replied before giving us a nod and heading into the house. I stared at the door for about a minute before heading down the stairs, the others quickly following.

"Well, that vengeful spirit theory is starting to make a little more sense. I mean, hell hath no fury," Dean said as we reached the Impala.

"So if Angela got her revenge on Matt, do you think it's over?" Sam asked.

"Well, there's one way to be sure," Dean replied, causing Athena and I to look at one another before getting into the car.

"What's that?" Sam asked.

"Burn the bones," he replied as he started up the car.

"Burn the bones? Are you high? Angela died last week," Sam said as he gave his brother an incredulous look.

"So?" he asked.

"There's not going to be bones, Dean. There's going to be a ripe rotting body in the coffin," Sam replied, causing me to raise my eyebrow. This wasn't like Sam. Although I had to agree with him about the bones. I just didn't think about it for the same reasons he did.

"Since when are you afraid to get dirty, huh?" he asked, causing Sam to just give him a look before shaking his head as Dean roared the engine to life and took off. A few hours later, I stood with Athena on the edge of Angela Mason's grave holding a flashlight as Dean and Sam dug through the earth to get to the coffin.

"How much further?" I asked, causing Dean to grunt and throw his shovel up toward me.

"Answer your question?" he asked, causing me to roll my eyes as Sam started to open the coffin. Letting my light shine down on the boys, I raised an eyebrow in confusion when I saw that there was no body in the coffin. Just white satin that outlined the inside. And something beneath the pillow. Bingo.

"Uh…guys? Isn't there suppose to be a dead rotting corpse in here?" Athena asked.

"They buried the body four days ago," Dean replied as he and Sam got up out of the grave and looked down into it beside us.

"I don't get it," Sam said as he shook his head.

"I do. It makes complete sense," I said, the three of them looking to me as I stared at something beneath the pillow that had caught my eye just a second previous.

"Want to share with the class?" Dean asked.

"What do you see beneath that pillow?" I asked as I motioned to it with my light. There eyes shifted to the pillow, which caused Sam and Dean to crouch down.

"What is that?" Dean asked.

"I'm not sure," Sam replied.

"I've seen these kinds of symbols before," he said after a moment before looking up to me.

"It makes perfect sense. All the dead trees and grass in a perfect circle around her grave. The dead plants and dead goldfish at her boyfriend's house when he apparently killed himself. Which he actually didn't because he claimed to be seeing her everywhere he was right before his death. And now that book or paper thing or whatever the hell it is has Greek symbols on it for rituals that are usually meant for communicating with the dead. Possibly bringing them back to life," I said, causing Athena to give me a look.

"You can tell what those symbols mean just by that small hole in the pillow?" she asked, causing me to nod.

"I like the Greek culture, remember? Look, we're not dealing with a spirit. We're dealing with a full human corpse that is walking, talking, breathing, etc. Except that she's dead. And I should of thought about it earlier when Dean and I saw the dead grass and stuff, but no. I got side-tracked. We're dealing with a zombie," I replied, causing Dean to nod.

"And I know just the person to talk to," he said.

* * *

"So a zombie. What's our next move?" I looked up from my sketch book to give Athena a look.

"What? I have to ask to make sure you don't do anything stupid," she said, causing me to roll my eyes.

"You can't set a zombie on fire or kill it with silver bullets like a spirit or a shape shifter. We have to get Angela back to her grave and pin her with a silver stake to her coffin. It's the only way to kill her. Or rekill her anyways," I said.

"I always seem to forget how much you know about the supernatural. You use to be so paranoid when we first started that you would read every single book you could get your hands on to make sure you knew what we were up against and how to kill it. Now you scare me just a little bit with how much information you can pull out of that brain of yours in such a short amount of time," she said.

"Sometimes I scare myself," I said as I turned my attention back to my sketch book.

"I thought you already finished that drawing yesterday?" she asked as she looked down at my newest drawing, which was kind of exactly the same thing as the one I had drawn before.

"I did. This one is just with a little something extra. And what in bloody hell are those two arguing about now?" I asked as I lifted my head at the sound of Sam and Dean's voices and turned to look at them just slightly down the street.

"I don't know. It could be about anything. They've fought lately about everything," she replied, causing me to sigh and get off the Impala.

"Come on," I said as I headed toward the boys.

**Dean's POV**

"What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Back off," I snapped as I stormed from Angela's father's house and down the street toward the Impala and the girls.

"That man is innocent, Dean. He didn't deserve that," Sam said.

"Ok. So she's not here. Maybe he's keeping her somewhere else," I said.

"Stop it. That's enough, okay. Enough," he snapped.

"Sam, I know what I'm doing," I said as I gave him a look.

"No, you don't. At all. Dean, I don't scare easy, but you're scaring the shit out of me, which is hard to do. Unless you're Artemis, but that's a completely different story," he said.

"Don't be overdramatic," I said.

"You're lucky this turned out to be a real case. Because if it wasn't, you would have found something else to kill," he snapped, causing me to stop and give him a look.

"What…"

"You're on edge. You're erratic. Except for when you're hunting, because then you're down right fucking scary. A lot scarier than Artemis is when she's pissed off and upset. You're tailspinning, man. And you refuse to talk about it, and you won't let me help you," he snapped.

"I can take care of myself, thanks," I said.

"No, you can't. This has been going on for a year, Dean. Ever since you let Artemis go. The one thing you had to keep you from thinking and hurting about dad. And now that she's back, you're still tailspinning because you don't know what to do with yourself about whether or not to let her back into that spot or just leave her hanging out to dry. I know you still have feelings for her but you just won't admit it. You think you can take care of yourself like this and you can't. And you know what? You're the only one who thinks you should have to. You don't have to handle this alone. No one can. I told you this the first several weeks after Artemis left and you're still as fucking stubborn as you were then," he said.

"Sam, if you bring up dad's death one more time…"

"Stop. Dean, it's killing you. After all this time after his death, this one case is finally making you face the reality you should of faced a long time ago. When his death happened. But you covered it up with Artemis. Just like she covers herself with those icy walls to keep everyone out. Please. We've already lost dad. We've lost mom. I've lost Jessica and now I've lost Kiki. It's eating me inside with my wife having been kidnapped by those fucking demons right beneath my nose. But I have to face reality that she's gone. For now. But you, you have got to face the reality that this case is bringing up. The feelings that you buried beneath Artemis," he said, causing me to look at him before shaking my head.

"We better get out of here before the cops come. I hear you. Okay? Yeah, I'm being an ass. And I'm sorry. But right now we've got a fucking zombie running around. We need to figure out how to kill it. Right?" I asked, causing him to give me a look before chuckling.

"Our lives are weird," he said as he shook his head.

"You're telling us." We looked behind us to see Artemis and Athena standing there watching us. Athena merely had an eyebrow raised while Artemis' eyes were locked on me, which was slightly scary with all the emotions running through them. It was like I could feel them inside of me at that very moment. God damn Sam and his feelings.

"You have to stake her with a silver stake to the inside of her coffin. That's the only way you're going to be able to kill her for good," Athena said, breaking me out of my thoughts to look at her.

"You sure?" I asked, causing her to nod.

"Supernatural encyclopedia right here," she replied, nodding to Artemis.

"Alright then. Let's get out of here before the cops come. Maybe we can figure out where Angela is," I said as we headed toward the Impala. About a half an hour later, we sat around the table at the motel leafing through our dad's journal and coming up with ideas of where to find Angela.

"I think it's that guy we talked to earlier. Neil or whatever his name is," Artemis said as she got up and got herself a glass of water.

"I'll take to that. I think that if it's not her dad, it could very well be that guy Neil," I said with a nod.

"How'd you two come up with that?" Sam asked as he gave us looks.

"Well, you've got your journal and I've got mine. Remember his name that you found in her diary?" I asked as I picked up Angela's diary I had taken from her room when I had been with her room mate a few days before.

"Yeah. What about it?" he asked.

"You didn't read far enough into it. Let's see. Oh here's a good one. "Neil's a real shoulder to cry on. He so understand what I'm going through with Matt." No doubt about it that he's our guy," Artemis said as she peered around my shoulder to read one of the journal entries.

"And that's just one journal entry. There's more where that came from. It's got unrequited Ducky love all over it," I added.

"Yeah. But that doesn't mean he brought her back from the dead. I don't think he's that smart," Athena said, causing me to smirk.

"Mm. Did I mention he's Professor Mason's TA? Has access to all the same books?" I asked, causing Athena and Sam to look at one another before looking to me and Artemis.

"So if he did it, now what?" Athena asked.

"We're just going to have to go check out his place. He would obviously be stashing her there. Maybe the basement or something," Artemis said. Sam gave us a look but nodded nonetheless. It would be a perfect hiding spot for a zombie, I think. All I knew was that we needed to get her back to her coffin and get the hell off this case. It was too much for me. Way too much for me.

* * *

"Hello?"

"Nice, Einstein. Alert him to our presence. That way he calls the cops and then we'll be in jail while the zombie girlfriend goes out on a killing rampage. I just love your ideas." I gave a glare to Artemis, who merely rolled her eyes and flipped me off before whispering to Athena. I merely shook my head and looked around.

"Neil! It's your grief counselors. We've come to hug," I said as I took out my gun.

"Silver bullets?" Sam asked.

"Yeah. Enough to make her rattle like a change purse," I replied, causing Artemis to give me a look.

"What part of stake to the coffin don't you understand?" she asked.

"We're just trying a few things that we found in dad's journal and other places. We couldn't tell you which was myth or which real. But a lot of then did have silver in them. Although I didn't exactly find staking them to the coffin in it," Sam replied, causing her to scoff.

"I can not believe you are not going to trust me on this. You have to stake her to her coffin. That's the only thing that's going to work," she said.

"Yeah, well it doesn't hurt to try a few other things, princess," I said as I started moving through the house.

"This is unbelievable. I can not believe you guys won't take me seriously with this," she said as she shook her head in disbelief. I rolled my eyes at her dramatic whine, but stopped when Sam pointed toward a bureau with plants on them. Every single one of them were dead. Angela's body was definitely here.

"Hey guys. Come here," Athena called out, causing us to head toward her voice, in which we found her standing in front of a locked door. We all looked at each other before looking back at the door.

"Unless this is where he keeps his porn. You two keep watch up here. Yell if something happens," I said as Sam unlocked the door and opened it. They nodded and Sam and I headed down to the basement, where we didn't exactly find the zombie but a place that definitely looked like a zombie was living there.

"Sure looks like a zombie pen to me," I said, causing Sam to nod.

"Yeah. An empty one. You think Angela's going after somebody?" he asked as I looked around. The other side of the room caught my attention and I headed over to where there was an air vent or what was suppose to be a window in the wall, causing me to move it and reveal a way outside of the house.

"No. I think she went out to rent _Beaches_," I said with sarcasm, causing my brother to roll his eyes.

"Look, smart-ass, she might kill someone. We got to find her, Dean," he said, causing me to sigh and call up to the girls. They appeared at the top of the stairs slight confusion and gave us a look.

"Alright. She clipped Matt because he was cheating, right?" I asked, causing them to nod.

"Definitely. It takes two tango," Artemis replied.

"Exactly. It takes two to, you know…have hardcore sex. I don't know. It just seemed that Angela's roommate was broken up over Matt's death. I mean, like, really broken up," I said.

"You think Angela's roommate was the one Matt was cheating on her with?" Athena asked as Sam and I started to ascend up the stairs.

"There's only one way to find out. Let's go," I said as we headed out to the car.

**Artemis' POV**

"Alright. So Angela's roommate and her boyfriend were together secretly behind Angela's back. Angela finds out, gets really upset, and drives her car off the road in a fit of rage, which ultimately ends her life. She's then brought back to life by a man who really loved her and she goes on a killing spree of the two people that broke her heart and brought about her death. Does that about cover everything?" I asked as Dean sped the car toward Angela's place.

"Sounds about right. Hopefully she's there and we can put her waste," Dean replied with a nod, causing me to roll my eyes. I just didn't understand why they so suddenly changed their minds about believing what I said. It was really irritating and it was getting on my nerves that their trust of my words was still shaky. However, I was snapped out of my thoughts as screams rang through my ears and that's when I realized Dean had stopped the Impala and was already getting out of the car with Sam and Athena following. Throwing open the door, I quickly followed and stepped into the house just in time to see Dean go out the balcony window after the girl after firing a couple of shots while Sam knelt down next to the roommate to see if she was alright.

"I got you. It's alright," Sam said as he helped her to her feet just as Dean came back inside.

"Damn that dead chick can run," he said, causing me to scoff.

"So now what?" Athena asked.

"I say we go have a little chat with Neil," Dean replied, causing me to roll my eyes before heading back out toward the Impala. Why did dead things have to be such a pain in the ass? Why couldn't they just be easy? Oh wait. They like to torture the bloody fuck out of us. I let out a sigh as the other three emerged from the house after having probably calmed the girl down from what just happened.

"So the silver bullets…they did something, right?" Sam asked as we got into the car and headed off to talk to Neil.

"Yeah, something. But not enough. What else you got?" Dean asked.

"Um…okay. Besides silver, we have nailing the undead back into their grave beds. It's mentioned a few times. It's probably where the vampire-staking lore came from," Sam replied, causing me roll my eyes and mutter obscenities under my breath.

"Their grave beds? You serious?" Dean asked.

"Yeah. Guess Artemis was right. Again," he replied as he looked back to me. I merely flipped him off and looked out the window. God damn those Winchester boys. They were going to be the bloody fucking death of me.

"How the hell are we going to get Angela back to the cemetery?" Athena asked.

"We're going to use Neil as bait," I replied.

"Excuse me?" Sam asked, causing me to roll my eyes.

"Well he obviously brought her back to life and he should be the one we use to get her to come to the graveyard. If she's in love with him like she probably claims herself to be, she'll do anything and kill anything in her way of him," I replied, causing them to look at one another before looking back at me.

"Neil it is then," Dean said as he sped off to find him. A short while later we pulled up to a building, which was probably the school where he was a TA, and headed inside to find him. It didn't take long to find the room since it was the only one with the light on.

"What are you guys doing here?" he asked as he looked at us in confusion.

"I've heard of some people doing some desperate things to get laid, but you…you take the cake," Dean replied as we approached him. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the plants on the desk behind him were wilted and almost dead like. She was here.

"Okay. Who are you guys?" he asked.

"You might want to ask Angela that question," Dean replied.

"What?" he asked as he gave us another confused look.

"We know what you did. The ritual. Everything," Sam replied, causing the guy to look at us before scoffing nervously.

"Crazy," he said as he shook his head.

"Your girlfriend is past her expiration date and we're crazy? When someone's gone, they should stay gone. You don't mess with that kind of stuff," Dean said, causing me to look to Sam in slight shock at what Dean was saying. I was beginning to worry about him just a little bit.

"Angela killed Matt. She tried to kill Lindsey," Sam said.

"I don't know what you're talking about. Hey!" Neil exclaimed as Dean rounded the desk and grabbed him by his collar.

"No more shit, Neil. His blood is on your hands. Now, me, him and these two girls can make this right, but you got to tell us where she is. Tell us," he said, causing Neil to become slightly flabbergasted for words.

"My…my house. She's at my house," he replied, causing me to get Dean's attention from behind Neil's back and nod my head toward the plants on the desk behind Neil's desk. He obviously got the picture because he let his eyes shift to the side and take in the plants.

"Are you sure about that?" he asked as he looked back at Neil, causing Neil to nod. However, I caught Dean shifting his eyes to the other side and I turned my head slightly to see a door, causing me to nudge Sam. He gave me a look, in which I merely nodded my head toward the door. He caught my drift and looked toward the door before looking back at me with a nod. There was no doubt Neil was hiding the girl in the closet.

"Listen. It doesn't really matter where she is. There's only one way to stop her. We got to perform another ritual over her grave. To reverse the one that you did. We're going to need black root, some scar weed, and some candles. It's very complicated, but it'll get the job done. She'll be dead again in a couple of hours. I think you should come with us," Dean said, causing Athena and I to look at one another in confusion. What the bloody hell was Dean up to?

"I'm serious, Neil. Leave with us. Right now," he said, causing Neil to shake his head.

"No. No," he said, causing me to roll my eyes as I finally caught on to what Dean was trying to do. I leaned in and gave Neil a hardened look.

"Listen to me, Neil, and listen to me good. Get out of here as soon as you can. But most of all, be cool. No sudden movements. Don't make her mad. You don't want to end up like Matt, now do you?" I whispered before pulling back to let the others see the terror starting to build up in his eyes.

"Let's go," Dean said, tugging on my arm. Following him out, I let out a sigh. Some people were just so dumb for their own good.

"So now what?" Athena asked as we left the building.

"We go stake ourselves a zombie," I replied as we got into the Impala and Dean sped off toward the cemetery. This was going to be a fun one. God help us she didn't try to kill us first.

* * *

"You really think this is going to work?"

"No, not really. But it was the only thing I could come up with."

"The only thing that's true about this entire thing is the fact that she's going to be staked to her coffin. You can thank me any time for that suggestion," I snapped as I lit the last of my candles and gave the boys a glare. They shared a look before Sam sighed and gave me a look.

"Look, we're sorry, Artemis. We're sorry that we started trusting in you with your method but then went to other sources before coming back to it. It's just that…you're starting to scare us with how right you are with this lore and stuff. It's like you actually stuff the entire supernatural world into your brain," he said.

"Sam, I'm scaring myself with how much I know, but that doesn't mean I trust you any less than what I did back a year ago when we were hunting together. I would lay my life on the line and trust you to make sure nothing took it away. It hurts you could think so little of me," I said.

"Artemis, we don't think little of you. You're just scaring us. Your mind skill have increased, you hunting skills have increased, etc. We're just worried about you," he said, causing me to chuckle dryly.

"I wish you wouldn't," I said, causing all of them to give me a slight look of shock. I made to say something else, but the sound of twigs snapping caused me to stand from my crouching position and take my gun from the back of my jeans. I knew that the bullets weren't going to do anything to serious, but it couldn't help to have the protection. Looking to Sam, he nodded and took out his own gun before the two of us headed off toward the slightly wooded area that was near the grave.

"I can't wait for this to be over. This bitch has given me a bloody headache the size of Texas with having to chase after her all over the place," I muttered, causing Sam to chuckle and nod in agreement. We moved quickly into the area and kept a good look out for her since she was a quick little bitch. As I moved away from Sam slightly, I caught a slight piece of white out of the corner of my eye.

"Sam, behind you," I hissed, causing both him and I to turn and train our guns on our zombie girl, Angela.

"Wait. It's not what you think. I didn't ask to be brought back. But it's still me. I'm still a person. Please," she said with a bit of sadness in her eyes, which caused me to roll my eyes.

"Oh give me a bloody break," I muttered before I pulled the trigger on my gun. However, I wasn't the only one thinking it as two sets of bullets went straight through her head. I smirked slightly, but it quickly vanished as Angela's eyes narrowed.

"Shit," Sam swore as we quickly turned on our heals and ran back toward the grave with Angela hot on our tails. I heard Sam hit the ground with a hard thump and I skidded to a stop to see Angela putting her hands around her neck.

"Sam!" I yelled, pulling up my gun to fire. However, the sound of another gun ringing out stopped me from doing so as Angela stumbled off of Sam. Turning my head, I saw both Dean and Athena not far and both were firing off their guns, knocking Angela back into her grave. Watching her fall into her grave, I caught the silver stake that Dean tossed to me since I was closer and slid into the grave right behind her. Raising it up, I brought it down upon her with as much force as I could muster.

"Wait! Don't!" she yelled as I felt Dean slid in next to me and help me drive it in as deep as it would go to keep her from getting up. She look at us for a split second before her head slammed down against the satin white pillow and she moved no more. Breathing hard, I looked to Dean as he pulled back from the stake.

"What's dead should stay dead," he said before looking at me. I could see the emotions running through his eyes and I let out a sigh before pulling him toward me. I don't know what came over me, but it just felt like the right thing to do. I felt him stiffen but it faded as familiarity started to set him.

"It's going to be okay," I whispered to myself as my breathing started to return to normal. I hoped.

* * *

"Rest in peace."

"Yeah. For good this time, okay?" Dean asked as he and Sam finished covering the grave back up. Athena and I let out a slight chuckle before we helped the boys pack up the shovels and whatnot.

"You know, the whole fake-ritual thing? Luring Angela into the cemetery? Pretty sharp," Sam said.

"Thanks," he said.

"But did we have to use me as bait?" Sam asked as he started rubbing his wrist.

"I figured you were more her type. She had pretty shitty taste in guys," he replied with a smirk.

"Are you alright, Sam?" I asked as I gave him a look.

"I think she broke my hand," he replied.

"You're just too fragile. We'll get it looked at later," Dean said as he gave his brother a look before looking behind him. Shifting my attention from Sam to Dean, I noticed he was looking toward his mother's grave.

"You want to stay for a while?" Sam asked. Dean didn't answer for about a minute before he shook his head and threw the shovel in the back of the Impala.

"That answers our question. Come on. Let's see if we can't get Dean to drive us to the nearest hospital. You need to get your hand looked at so it doesn't set wrong if it's really broken," I said, causing Sam to nod and head toward the Impala. Looking back to their mother's grave, I sighed before getting into the car. About an hour later, the four of us sat in an emergency room waiting for Sam to get his hand cast since it was indeed broken.

"I'm sorry." I looked up from my sketch book and stared over at Dean as he leant against the wall near Sam as Sam sat on the hospital bed waiting on the doctor.

"For what?" Sam asked as he gave his brother a confused look.

"The way that I've been acting. And for dad. I mean, he was your dad too. And it's my fault that he's gone," he replied, causing Athena and I to look at one another before looking over at the boys. This was the first time I had heard Dean talk about his dad and his dad had been gone for over more than a year. He kept all of his emotions about it bottled up and focused on me. To take the pain away. That much I knew. I wasn't stupid.

"What are you talking about?" Sam asked as I was brought back into the reality of the conversation taking place.

"I know you've been thinking it. So have I. I mean, we've been a little busy saving girls from curses and having weddings and what not, but it's still been in my mind. It doesn't take a genius to figure it out. Back at the hospital when we had the accident, I made a full recovery. I mean, so did Artemis but hers was so much more different than what I was being dealt. It was a miracle. And five minutes later dad's dead and the Colt's gone. You can't tell me there's not a connection there. I don't know how the demon was involved, I don't know how the whole thing went down exactly, but dad's dead because of me. And that much I do know," he replied, causing me to sigh. I couldn't believe he was blaming himself. After all this time.

"We don't know that. Not for sure," Sam said.

"Sam…you and dad? You're the most important people in my life besides the girls. That includes Artemis. And now, after this case, I never should have come back, Sam. It wasn't natural. And now look what's come of it. I was dead and I should have stayed dead," he said, causing me to shake my head as I stood up.

"That is not true, Dean. Don't you ever think that. Don't you ever think that you should be dead," I said as I felt tears starting to swell up in my eyes at the words I was hearing. Words that should have been said a long time ago that he buried away. Because of me. This was so wrong.

"You wanted to know how I was feeling. Well, that's it. So tell me. What could you possibly say to make that all right?" he asked, ignoring what I was saying. My heart was breaking as I watched tears start to run down his face before he turned and walked out of the room. Looking to Athena, she sighed and got up to follow him out, leaving only Sam and myself alone.

"He's killing himself, Artemis," Sam said, causing me to look over at him.

"I know," I said.

"No. You don't know. This is not the first time he's cracked about dad's death. I mean, this is the worst that I've seen him at it, but this is not the first time. This case really tore him apart," he said.

"I know," I said.

"You were that rock, Artemis. You…"

"I know that, Sam. But there is nothing I can do about it. He walked out on me, Sam. I wasn't the one that called it quits. Why does everyone keep saying that to me?" I asked.

"Because it's true and you know it. You're the one thing that somewhat keeps Dean sane. Although I'm not so sure anymore because not only is he fighting the demons he hid beneath you but he's also fighting the demons about you. I just don't know which one is the worst at the moment," he replied.

"Sam…"

"Just answer me this one question. Do you still love him?" he asked, causing me to give him a look. Of course I still loved Dean. There was no denying that to myself, but I would never admit it. I wasn't ready to suffer what happened last time again.

"No. No I don't love him. I'm sure he would say the same thing," I replied, causing him to sigh.

"You two are hopeless," he said, shaking his head. It was silent for a moment after that before I spoke again.

"He's not too far off with the demon being connected, Sam," I said, causing him to snap his head up and look at me.

"What are you talking about?" he asked, causing me to sigh and reach over for my sketch book. Flipping to one of the drawings, I handed it over to him. He looked at it for a minute before looking at me.

"I don't get it," he said.

"The yellow-eyed demon wanted that gun for an some kind of reason, Sam. We all know he was planning something big back when we first came across him and he's still planning it now. And it involves this place somehow. Although I can't seem to figure it out because it looks just like a regular cemetery," I said.

"And there's thousands of cemeteries to pick off. How do you know about this? We haven't had any contacted whatsoever with the demon. He hasn't even tried to get to us. It's like he's disappeared off the map," he said, causing me to scoff.

"Don't count your bloody chickens before they're hatched, Sam," I said, causing him to give me a look.

"What are you saying, Artemis?" he asked.

"How do you think I know about this particular cemetery, Sam? How do you explain it being the same picture I keep drawing over and over again every time I have a nightmare? The bloody bastard has been visiting my dreams ever since I set foot into England a year ago," I replied, causing him to look at me with shock.

"What? Wait. The yellow-eyed demon has been visiting you and you didn't think to tell us? What is wrong with you?" he asked as he stood up.

"He's got plans, Sam. Plans that I don't know, but I know they're huge. And they've definitely got something to do with me and you because the damn bloody bastard is cornering me and I'm not even a special child. Somehow we're linked with one another but I just don't know how. But he's somehow managed to get inside of my dreams, Sam. I don't want him there. You know I don't. But I don't really have a choice in the matter right now because I don't know what to do about it. I'm screwed right now, Sam. I'm bloody screwed," I said as the tears that had been building up between Dean and now this began to fall slowly down my cheeks. Sam, sensing that I really didn't know what was going on or where this dream thing was going, sighed and shook his head before pulling me to him.

"It's alright, Artemis. We're going to get through this," he said as he wrapped his arms around me the best that he could with his broken hand. I let out a sob as I buried my face into his chest, somewhat relieved at getting that off my chest. But at the same time, I felt guilty because that was really not the biggest piece of the puzzle to this mystery. The yellow-eyed demon was the least of our worries right now. I was bloody screwed and I couldn't do anything about it.

* * *


	4. Simon Said

Breath of Life

**Disclaimer****:** I do not own any of the Supernatural characters as they are the property of the Eric Kripke and the CW. I do, however, own Artemis, Kiki, Athena, and any other characters introduced within the story as they are sole property of my mind.

**Summary****: **Zombies, ghosts, demons, and all other supernatural she could handle. The disappearance of her best friend and the confused feelings for Dean she wasn't sure she could handle. Drawn back into hunting after nearly a year, 24 year old Artemis Flora Summers sets out once again with the Winchester boys and her old friend, Athena, to figure out who is behind the kidnapping of Kiki and why they want her. However, things begin to take unexpected turns when Artemis finds herself facing more of her past as her connection to Sam becomes more apparent and strong. What happens when she realizes that she's destined to follow in the footsteps of her ancestors? Can she shed those icy layers again to allow Sam and Dean, especially Dean, back in? Or has she finally met her end?

* * *

**Simon Said**

"_Hello? Yeah. All right."_

"Artemis? Talk to me, Artemis. Artemis? Dean! She's starting to seize."

"_I'd like to look at a gun."_

"_Yeah, right, doc."_

"She's not seizing. Sam must be having a vision or she's having another one of her freaky nightmares in broad daylight again. Her body is reacting to whatever is happening. Go check on Sam. Now."

"_Hmm….That one."_

"_Okay. That's a turkey hunter. Twelve-gauge, pump-action. Don't leave enough turkey behind if you ask me."_

"_What sort of shells does it use?"_

"Come on, princess. Talk to me. I know you can hear me."

"_It's okay. It's all going to be okay."_

"Artemis!" I heaved air into my lungs as my eyes snapped open to look up into a pair of green eyes filled with concern. Letting them shift around, I noticed that I was laying against Dean in the backseat of the Impala with his hands holding my head still as if to prevent me from doing something stupid. I think.

"Artemis, can you hear me?" he asked, causing me to sigh for a second before nodding. Which probably wasn't the best idea with the pounding headache I could feel in the back of my skull.

"Dean, is she alright?" I let my eyes shift away to Dean to see Athena and Sam coming toward us, Sam's eyes telling me everything I needed to know as he looked slightly guilty upon looking at me.

"Yeah. Her reaction to the vision or nightmare or whatever the hell she had was pretty strong. Sam, did you have a vision or something?" he asked, looking to his brother as he gently pushed me into a sitting position. I winced slightly as the throbbing still pounded at the back of my skull, but I let my head drop gently onto the head rest as Athena and Sam reached the car.

"Yeah. Some guy killing himself with a twelve-gauge turkey hunter shot gun," Sam replied.

"Ok. Now I'm kind of new to this, but what's that got to do with the price of lemons with Artemis having what seems like seizures? I mean, I know enough from observation and listening to her that you and her are connected somehow, but I don't get it. What is going on with her?" Athena asked as she gave us a confused look.

"Uh…Somehow every time I have a vision, Artemis can feel it. Like electricity shooting through her brain. Always pain but never visions. Except once. When we first came across the yellow-eyed demon right before our dad died. That's when Dean said she had a full blown vision while we were trying to figure out which 6 month old kid was the next to be picked up by the demon," he replied, causing me to snort with laughter before wincing. Damn vision.

"What's so funny?" Dean asked as they all looked at me funnily.

"I had the vision as well," I replied, causing them to look at me in shock.

"What?" Sam asked.

"Does a bus with the sign "Blue Ridge" on the front and a man talking on a cell phone before taking that gun to the bottom of his chin and shooting himself sound about right, Sam?" I asked, causing him to look at Dean and Athena, who were both too shocked to say anything, before looking back at me.

"Artemis…"

"Don't ask me why I'm having them, Sam, because I don't know. But apparently they've gotten stronger and a lot more painful since the last time they came around," I said, causing him to give me a look before looking to his brother.

"We need to head to the roadhouse," he said.

"Sam…"

"Let's just go, Dean. We're a couple of hours away and it'll be good to see Ellen, Jo and Ash again. They can probably help us out," he said, getting into the passenger seat as he gave Dean a look. Turning my head slightly, I could see the wheels turning in Dean's head before he sighed and shook his head.

"Sure. Whatever," Dean said as he got out of the back and got behind the wheel. I looked to Athena, but she merely shrugged before getting in and digging through her bag for Tylenol. I was more than grateful as I swallowed two pills with water and felt the throbbing of my head start to dwindle within minutes. Leaning my head back against the seat, I shut my eyes and just took in the silence that was surrounding me as Dean headed toward wherever it was that this roadhouse was at. It was actually kind of comforting for me because, even though the silence was kind of awkward with what just happened, I could take in my thoughts about what just happened with the vision. Or premonition. Which ever you wanted to call it.

"I don't know, man. Why don't we just chill out and think about this for a minute before we rush off to do something stupid," Dean said, breaking me out of my thoughts before I could get too far into them.

"What's there to think about?" Sam asked as he looked over to his brother.

"I just don't know if the roadhouse is the smartest idea," he replied.

"It's another premonition, Dean. I know it. This is going to happen and Ash can tell us where," Sam said.

"Yeah, man, but…"

"Plus, it could have a connection with the demon. It always does. And did you see what happened to Artemis? You were with her the last time this happened, Dean, and you know what happened to her," Sam said as he cut Dean off.

"That's my point. There are going to be hunters there. I don't know if going in and announcing that you're some supernatural freak with a demonic connection is the best thing, okay? It's not good for either of you. Who knows what they would do to you," he said, causing me to look to Sam before leaning up between them.

"Since when do you get to decide what we do? And did you just call us freaks?" I asked as I gave him a cold glare.

"You've always been a freak, Summers. What makes you think that it would change after the time we've been apart?" he asked sarcastically, rolling his eyes to prove his point. My eyes narrowed into thin slits and I made to say something, but Sam put his hand over my mouth to prevent me from doing so.

"Save your breath for another time, Art. When we get to the roadhouse, we'll talk to Ash and hopefully get to wherever this premonition took place in enough time to save the guy," Sam said, causing me to roll my eyes but nod nonetheless.

"So what's so special about this roadhouse anyways?" Athena asked as I settled back into my seat.

"It's run by a hunter named Ellen and her daughter Jo. Bobby sent us her way after you headed off to England and she's come in handy a few times with some cases. She would be the one I called when we got caught up in the whole Gordon Walker thing," he replied, causing me to nod since I had been in the room when he had made that phone call. The rest of the drive was pretty silent as I drifted in and out of sleep, hoping that the nightmares would not come in fear of what reactions I might get out of Sam and Dean. I just wasn't ready to tell them about what was going on, especially with the yellow-eyed demon being involved. A few hours later, I was shaken out of my sleep by Sam as Dean shut off the car and got out. Sitting up and rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, I noticed a building that must have been the roadhouse because the noise coming from it could not have been anything other than hunters.

"Why are they giving us weird looks?" Athena asked as Dean opened the door to the roadhouse and ushered us inside, many of the men sitting around turning to look at us with strange, yet hard looks.

"Don't ask," Sam said as he shut the door.

"Just can't stay away, huh?"

"Yeah, looks like. How you doing, Jo?" Dean asked with a slightly dry chuckle, causing me to turn my attention to some blonde chick giving Dean a smile. I raised an eyebrow and crossed my arms over my chest as I took her in. She wasn't that bad looking of a girl and she seemed harmless, but I could feel that there wasn't right about her and that didn't sit too well with me.

"Where's Ash?" Sam asked as he interrupted my thoughts.

"In his backroom. And I'm fine," she replied, causing him to nod and head off toward the other side of the bar, leaving me and Athena with Dean and the blonde, which I'm assuming her name was Jo by the way Dean greeted her. I mean, it really wasn't that hard to figure it out anyway since Sam said that a mother and daughter owned the roadhouse and this girl was talking to Dean like she knew him.

"Sorry. He's…We're kind of on a bit of a timetable. Art, you and Athena stay out here while Sam and I go have a talk with Ash. Have any problems, just scream for us," Dean said, causing us to nod before he gave a nod to the girl and headed off after his brother. She watched him go before turning to give us a look as if to question us like we didn't belong there or something.

"I'm going to head to the ladies room. Behave yourself out here," Athena said, causing me to roll my eyes before I headed toward the bar where an older woman was working.

"What can I get for you, darling?" she asked.

"I'll take just a beer," I replied, pulling out some money and handing it to her as she handed me the beer.

"You must be the famous Artemis Flora Summers," she said, causing me to slowly pull the beer away from my mouth as I gave her a suspicious look. She merely raised an eyebrow and shook her head.

"I know a lot of hunters that come through here and none of them have ever thought about walking through those doors with the Winchesters boys. And since I've met Sam's wife, Kiki, and know that she's gone missing, I would assume that you could only be the one female hunter every hunter talks about when they come through the roadhouse. Besides, the eccentric outfit gives it away," she said, causing me to give her another look before shaking my head.

"So you must be Ellen. It's a pleasure to meet you," I said as I took a sip of my beer.

"Want to tell me why you're coming through here with the Winchesters?" she asked, causing me to shrug.

"You can ask them yourself," I replied as I turned and headed toward one of the pool tables just as Athena was returning from the bathroom. I didn't want to come off as rude, but I couldn't help it. I didn't know the lady and even though Sam and Dean seemingly trusted her and her daughter, and supposedly this guy named Ash, I wasn't about to trust them until I could see for myself that they wouldn't screw me over and they could be counted as reliable.

"Hey, little lady. Let a real man show you how to shoot." I glanced up from pocketing a stripe ball to see a scruffy looking man standing at the end of the pool table watching me with this look in his eye. If anything, it was the most sickening look I had ever seen in my life. I let my eyes narrow to give him a glare before looking over toward Athena, who had already taken the hint without being prompted to and was heading in the direction of where Sam and Dean were. I could kiss that girl sometimes with her being able to read my body language without having to even say anything to me to get an answer.

"I asked you a question, sweet thing." My eyes snapped as the guy now stood right in front of me with a smirk that made me want to puke.

"No thanks. I don't go for sleazy hunters like yourself," I said as I pocketed another ball. I made to take another shot when I felt one of his hand land on my back and the other dip into the back pocket of my jeans, causing me to set down the pool stick and take a deep breath as the entire bar got quiet at the situation that was at hand. Not even Ellen was moving from behind the bar to give me assistance. Smart move.

"So you want to cop a feel, huh? Well let me show you how that gets rewarded," I said before I turned around with my beer and smashed it against his head, causing the entire roadhouse to stare at us in silence before erupting into an uproar of yelling and screaming. It caught the guy by surprise, which allowed me time to kick him in the stomach and away from me. By that time, I was faintly aware of Dean and Sam making there way through the crowd that was starting to form around us, but I didn't care as I moved out of the way of the guy's lunge and broke the pool stick I had been using over his face.

"Artemis!" I couldn't tell you whether it was Sam or Dean that had yelled but all I knew was that Sam was hauling me away while Dean finished the guy as he got back up again to hit me and Ellen trying to break everything up. But she would have no such luck when it came to Dean. God help her try. He would be making sure the guy wouldn't be able to walk again if he could help it.

"Alright, Artemis. Settle down. Are you alright? He didn't hurt you did he?" Sam asked, moving me down a hallway away from the situation before letting go of me, standing right in front of me to make sure I didn't go back out into the main area until Dean gave the all clear signal and let his eyes rake over me for any signs of blood or bruises.

"No, but the god damn bloody bastard copped a feel of my backside even when I bluntly told him I wasn't interested. This is why I hate it when you two go off and leave us to be by ourselves in bars like this, Sam. No matter who owns it or how well you know them," I said, causing him to sigh.

"I figured you'd be alright out in the bar while we went to get Ash. We didn't want you scaring him away before we could get information out of him," he said, causing me to roll my eyes.

"Gee. Thanks, Sam. It's nice to know that you've got such trust in me. Especially in a bar that you know I'll kick anyone's ass for messing with me. What is going through your head lately?" I asked.

"Artemis…"

"Sam, is she alright?" Sam stopped mid-sentence as Dean appeared beside his brother and gave me a look of concern.

"I'm fine, Dean," I replied for Sam.

"Well I can't say the same for the guy. With what you did and what I finished him with," he said, causing me to smirk before mockingly pouting.

"Deeeeaannnn! You didn't let me see the pretty art work on the guy's face. That's sooooo not bloody fair," I whined, mockingly stamping my foot as if I were to throw a tantrum or a fit. Sam and Dean shared an amused look on their faces as they watched me stamp my foot one final time before I looked up with a smirk that definitely reached my eyes.

"I guess now hunters around the states won't want to mess with me after they hear about what I did through that grapevine or whatever Gordon was talking about when we first met him," I said, causing Sam to let out a chuckle.

"Between you and Dean, they should be afraid. I'm afraid to ask what you did to him after I took her away," he said as he looked at his brother. I raised an eyebrow slightly when I saw Dean's eyes darken just a little bit. Was he really that protective of me?

"It took Athena, Ellen, Jo, Ash, and a few other hunters to get me off of him. Had I been there a little bit longer, he probably wouldn't be breathing," Dean said as he shook his head. I stared at him for a second before giving him a grateful look.

"Thank you, Dean. I really appreciate it," I said, causing him to give me a surprised look before giving me a slight smirk.

"Anything for the princess," he said, causing me to roll my eyes before punching him in the arm.

"Alright you two. Let's go talk to Ash and see what he can pull up for us. I'm sure Ellen has probably cleared he roadhouse out after what happened, so I don't think we need to worry about someone over hearing us," Sam said as he headed back out toward the main area. I looked to Dean, but he merely shrugged and followed his brother. I let out a sigh and ran a hand over my face before letting my neck crack and making my way out after them. Sam had join some guy with a mullet, which I assumed to be Ash, at a table where the guy had a laptop out while Dean went and sat next to Athena at the bar as Jo was cleaning up some of the mess that had been made from and Ellen was behind the bar serving drinks. Like Sam had mentioned, the bar was pretty much empty by now.

"I got to tell you something. I have never seen a hunter as tiny and quick as you to take out a man that is at least two or three times your size. He is never going to forget this and I'm sure that every hunter that passes through this roadhouse is going to know to stay away from you. And to especially stay away from Dean if they mess with you," Ellen said as she cracked a beer and handed it to me. I merely shrugged and headed over to where Sam and Ash were, leaving Ellen to probably question Dean about me. I plopped down next to Sam, causing Ash to look at me with a raised eyebrow.

"What? Why does everyone keep staring at me like that?" I asked as I looked between him and Sam.

"Nothing. You got anything yet?" Sam asked as he looked to Ash, causing me to sigh.

"I got a match. It's the logo for the Blue Ridge Bus Lines. It's in Guthrie, Oklahoma," Ash said as he pulled up whatever information Sam had given him on the computer.

"Okay. Do me a favor. Check Guthrie for any demonic signs or omens or anything like that," he said.

"You think the demon might be there?" Ash asked.

"Yeah, maybe," he replied with a slight nod, causing Ash to look over at him with a slightly suspicious look.

"Why would you think that?" Ash asked.

"Just check it, all right?" I looked up as Dean and Athena joined us. We all shared a look before looking over to Ash as he continued to fiddle with the computer before shaking his head.

"No, sir, nothing. No demon," he said.

"All right. Try something else for me. Search Guthrie for a house fire. It would be 1983. Fire's origin would be a baby's nursery and the night of the kid's 6-month birthday," Sam said, causing me to choke on my beer just slightly before giving Sam a look. What the bloody hell did he think he was doing?

"Okay, now that is just weird, man. Why the hell would I be looking for that?" he asked, causing Sam to slam an unopened beer down on the table between him and Ash and gave him a look.

"Because there's a PBR in it for you," Sam replied, causing Ash to turn back to the computer and begin typing away.

"Give me 15 minutes," he said before I got up and pulled Sam out of his chair, pulling him slightly away from everyone else.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" I asked, causing him to sigh and give me a look.

"I think it may have something to do with the demon but I don't," he replied, causing me to give him a confused look.

"What the bloody hell are you talking about?" I asked.

"In the vision or premonition or whatever the hell you want to call them, did you see black eyes on any person? Including the person who shot himself?" he asked, causing me to give him a funny look before thinking back to the vision I shared with him. Quickly going over it in my head, I couldn't find one person that had black eyes. Not one person.

"Ok. I see your point on that. But I don't get it, Sam. What's that got to do with the price of bloody lemons involving a nursery fire back in '83?" I asked as I gave him a look.

"Look, I'll explain later, alright? It's better if we talk about it on our way to Guthrie once we get the information out of Ash. Just trust me," he said, causing me to cross my arms and give an unladylike snort.

"Trust you? Sam, in the last five minutes, you haven't given me one good bloody fucking reason to trust you about this whole thing. And since when do you go to someone else to do research or whatever the bloody hell you want to call it? Since when do we allow someone else to do it for us?" I asked, causing him to sigh.

"I told you before, Artemis. Bobby directed us to Ellen a few days or so after you took off and every now again we stop in to see if there have been any sightings of the demon or if she's heard or got a case she wants us to take off her hands. As for Ash, he's got some brains behind that mullet of his. MIT and everything. He's got some knowledge behind him that you or I may not have. Look. I can see that you don't trust them and I don't blame you, but have a bit of faith in me, Artemis. I know you saw no black eyes in the vision, so you know it isn't a demon. It's something else and it could possibly have something to do with all the special children or something. I'm asking you to trust me on this one, Artemis. Like I'm trusting you about the whole yellow-eyed demon nightmares," he replied, causing my eyes to widen as I looked at him. He couldn't possibly use that against me. Could he?

"I don't like keeping things from my brother and you know it, Artemis. But I've always kept my word to you no matter how dangerous and stupid it is. So I'm asking you to trust me on this just like I trust you," he said, causing me to look away for a second before sighing.

"Fine. But I don't like being blackmailed," I said as I finished off my beer and tossed the bottle into the trash.

"I'm not blackmailing you, Artemis," he said, causing me to roll my eyes and head for the door.

"Sure. Whatever. I'm going to the car to get a few hours of sleep before we figure out what this thing is that we're supposedly hunting," I said before I slammed the door behind me and headed for the Impala. Not blackmailing me my bloody ass. He was completely blackmailing me. Although I didn't blame him. I was harboring a deep secret and once again I was hiding it from everybody but Sam.

"I hate my life sometimes," I muttered as I threw myself into the backseat and let my eyes shut. I just hoped Sam knew what he was doing and that it didn't come back to bite him or any of us in the ass. That and the nightmares involving the demon. God I hated my life.

* * *

**Dean's POV**

"Oh great. I swear I'm going to kill that girl one of these fucking days. I better go with her to make sure she doesn't try rearranging somebody else's face. It was nice meeting you, Ellen, and don't do anything stupid, Dean. I don't want to drag your sorry ass out of here in a body bag." I threw a glare in Athena's direction, but she merely flipped me off and bid everyone good night before heading out the door Artemis had gone out just a few minutes previous.

"Those two are going to be the death of me," I muttered as Ellen handed me another beer.

"Women will do that to you," she said before going off to clean up the rest of mess that Artemis and I had made earlier. I merely shook my head and took another sip of my beer as I tried to relax. However, I was pulled out of it as music started floating through the speakers of the jukebox that made me look up from my beer as Jo came toward the bar area with a tray full of empty beer glasses. I let my eyes shift over her as I tried to figure out what the hell she was playing this song for.

"What?" she asked, looking up as if she felt my gaze.

"REO Speedwagon?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Damn right, REO. Kevin Cronin sings it from the heart," she replied, causing me to snort with laughter.

"He sings it from the hair. There's a difference," I said, causing her to give me a look before looking back toward her mom and then again at me.

"That profile you've got Ash looking for. You're mom died the same way, didn't she? A fire in Sam's nursery?" she asked, causing me to sigh slightly and give her a look.

"Look, Jo, it's kind of a family thing," I said.

"I could help," she said.

"I'm sure you could. But we got to handle this one ourselves. Besides, if I ran off with you, your mother might kill me," I said as I looked over to Ellen, who gave me a look to which I merely gave a small, fake smile back before looking back at Jo.

"You're afraid of my mother?" she asked.

"I think so. Or it just may be the fact that the female hunter in my car could easily slit my throat tonight while I'm sleeping if she caught wind that I ran off with you or allowed anyone other than my brother or me to help on the cases. The last time wasn't so fun," I replied, causing her to raise an eyebrow.

"We've heard about her through some of the hunters that have passed through here. I thought she worked alone," she said, causing me to nod.

"She was before she and Sam's wife got tangled up with us for a while. Then she went out on her own for about a year before joining back up with us with the disappearance of Kiki. She's a little bit of a firecracker," I said, causing her to nod in agreement after witnessing earlier. She made to say something when Sam showed with some papers in hand.

"We have a match. We got to go," he said, causing me to nod and drain the rest of my glass before standing up.

"All right, Jo. See you later," I said as Sam tossed me my jacket and we headed out the door to the Impala. Both girls were passed out in the backseat and I gave Sam a look, in which he merely shrugged.

"At least you'll get a couple of hours of peace and quiet providing that she doesn't wake up," he said, causing me to roll my eyes before getting into the car and starting her up. A few minutes later we were on our way, silence echoing through the car for the most part as Sam shuffled through his papers and the two girls slept soundly for the most part. Even though I would normally embrace the silence for a change over an argument with Artemis, it was irritating me a little bit with the silence, causing me to turn the radio on and raise an eyebrow as REO Speedwagon came through the speakers.

"You best hope Artemis doesn't wake up. You know how cranky she is if she's woken up," Sam said, causing me to roll my eyes before turning my attention back to the road as I listened to the song playing. It wasn't long before I was beginning to sing to it, causing Sam to look over at me with a raised eyebrow.

"You're kidding, right?" he asked.

"Sam! Shut your brother the bloody fuck up before I hit him so hard in the head that he'll be unconscious for the entire time it takes us to Guthrie or where ever the bloody fuck we're going." My eyes trailed to the rearview mirror where I saw Artemis sitting up with a glare in her eyes.

"I heard the song somewhere, princess. I can't seem to get it out of my head. I don't know. What do you got?" I asked as I looked from Artemis to my brother, causing her to lean forward and hit me upside the head. I merely gave her a glare as she stuck her tongue out at me before I turned my attention back to my brother.

"Well?" I asked.

"Andrew Gallagher. Born in '83, like me. Lost his mother in a nursery fire exactly six months later, which is also like me," he replied.

"You think a demon killed his mom?" I asked, causing Artemis to snort with laughter as she leaned between the two of us.

"Well that one is point blank obvious. Your mom dies in a fire in Sam's nursery and my mother dies in a fire in my brother's nursery. Of course it's a demon. More than anything it's the yellow-eyed demon," she replied.

"How did you even know to look for this guy?" I asked as I gave my brother a look.

"Every premonition I've ever had, it isn't about the demon. They're about the other kids the demon visited. Like Max Miller. Remember him?" he asked, causing Artemis to nod as she spoke.

"Other than that 6 month old baby, I think Max Miller was the only other child I came across with abilities like yours," she replied.

"But Max Miller was a pasty little psycho," I said as I interjected.

"The point is, he was killing people, and I was having the same type of visions about him. And now it could be happening all over again with this Gallagher guy," Sam said.

"So how do we find him?" Athena asked.

"I don't know. No current address, no current employment. Still owes money on all his bills. Phone, credit, utilities, etc.," he replied.

"Collection-agency flags?" I asked.

"None in the system," he replied.

"So they just let him take a walk?" I asked as I gave my brother a confused look.

"Seems like it. There's a work address from his last W2 from about a year ago. We'll start there," he replied as he looked up from all the papers to give me a look. Artemis must have caught the look because she frowned as she leaned back into the seat and took out her cell phone and sketch book. I raised an eyebrow and looked to Sam for a possible answer, but he merely shrugged as he looked back at her.

"What are you doing?" Athena asked.

"I just had a thought," she replied as I watched her hand fly over her sketch book through the rearview mirror.

"Want to share with the class, princess?" I asked, causing her to look up at me with a slight glare before returning her attention back to what she was doing. I let out an irritated sigh and gave my brother a look, in which he merely shrugged.

"Each child we've seen or heard about has had some kind of connection to the yellow-eyed demon. But they've all been psychos or something along those lines. This kid could possibly be something like that too. But that's not exactly my point. Here. Look at this," she said as she leaned over the front seat and dropped her book between Sam and I. Staring down at it slightly, I looked back up at her with confusion as I pulled the car off the road and parked it.

"This looks like a broken down town, Artemis. I'm not understanding," Sam said as he too looked at her in confusion. She looked at all of us before sighing and flipping to another page. To me it looked like any old cemetery, but I could never be too sure.

"Ever since I left for England, I've been having these strange dreams. Not very long dreams because I wake up just as quickly as I go to sleep. Mostly they're about this cemetery. More recently they're about this town. I'm wondering if these special children have something to do with it," she said.

"But we've only come across one so far. Andrew Gallagher maybe being the second. Is there something you're not sharing with us, princess? Something that happened to you in England that we're not aware of?" I asked as I looked back at her.

"I think something big is coming. I don't know what, but something is coming. And I think we might start having these visions about these kids a lot more, Sam. A lot more," she replied.

"Artemis, did something happen to you? This isn't like you to talk like this," Sam said as he gave her a look of concern. But she merely leaned back into her seat and put her ear phones in before curling just slightly so that she was comfortable to slip back into sleep if she wanted to. I looked over at my brother and I could tell that he was just as confused I was. I hated when she did this to us. She would tell us something so vague or in a way that left us confused and wanting to know more and it pissed me off. It hurt me more than anything really. I hated that she closed herself up like that. Like Sam and I wouldn't do anything for her. Like I wouldn't. No matter how hard I tried to fight it, I was still in love with that girl. I just wished she would trust me.

* * *

**Artemis' POV**

"I don't see what we get out of being stuck out here with the car while those two get to have all the fun." I looked from my sketch book to Athena, who was lounging out on the hood of the car with her back against the windshield and sunglasses hiding her eyes from the sun. If anything, she was trying to get a tan or something. Or she was just bored.

"Because I don't like dressing up in business attire and looking like a clown. Besides, I get a laugh out of watching Dean complain about dressing in a suit and having to decide what name and occupation they're going to be using this time. And Dean's going to kill you when he sees you laying out on the hood of his car," I said as I tilted my sunglasses up slightly to give her a look. She merely rolled her eyes and hopped off the car before sitting next to me.

"When are you going to tell him?" she asked, causing me to give her a look.

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

"When are you going to tell him that you still love him? That you still want him?" she asked, causing me to sigh and run a hand over my face.

"Athena…"

"Artemis, I've seen the way that you've looked at him and vice versa. You are still head over heels in love with Dean Winchester, but you're too stubborn to let yourself admit it again. You have no curse hanging over you. You have nothing holding you back except your emotions. At least you have a chance again for love," she said, causing me to raise an eyebrow in slight confusion.

"Athena, what are you talking about?" I asked.

"David and I are getting a divorce," she replied, causing me to drop my book in shock.

"What?" I asked.

"I thought I could live a normal life and leave the supernatural world behind. I thought I could do it by having fallen in love with David, but I knew there was going to be no chance of that happening. Six years and I still have the same thirst for being on the road and keeping other people safe. I just couldn't handle putting David in danger if something happened. I couldn't tell him what it was that I did when I met him. I had to lie and the lie was eating away at me. He would have had me locked up so quick and you know it. And he didn't like the idea that I was leaving with you. We had a huge argument the night before we left to start hunting for Kiki. He told me to let the police do their jobs and not to follow the nut job of a sister in search of her. I couldn't stand for him to talk about you like that. Sure you're a crack fire and have an attitude problem about the way of life, but you're still like my baby sister. So I cracked him one and told him that if he couldn't handle you being in my life like this and that I couldn't just sit around for the police to find Kiki dead, then he could just divorce me. He called me up a couple of days ago and told me he was wanting a divorce but I can't be found anywhere to give the divorce papers to. He told me I had better come home and sign them. I think it's a trap," she replied.

"Why didn't you say something to me? And what do you mean? Why do you think it's a trap?" I asked, causing her to sigh.

"I didn't tell you because I didn't want to bother you with it right now. I know you're upset about Kiki and having to deal with Dean and now all of this stuff with Sam. It's too much for you to handle. And besides, I heard myself being taped," she replied.

"What do you mean?" I asked as I gave her a curious look.

"I could hear the taping of machines in the background. Even though it was quiet in the background, I could still pick it up. He's got somebody working to find out where I am. He also told me that the FBI was looking for me that night I talked to him," she replied, causing my eyes to widen. FBI?

"Said that they were looking to question me about the whereabouts of Artemis Flora Summers, Lauren Orion, and Dean and Samuel Winchester. Something's up, Artemis. And it isn't good. Especially if the FBI is getting involved with the disappearance of Kiki," she said, causing me to swear and stand up as I saw Sam and Dean coming around the corner toward us.

"We've got a location on him. Orchard Street. His ex-boss told us that we could find him just by finding a van with a barbarian queen riding a polar bear painted on the side," Dean said as he held up a piece of paper.

"Great. But we've got bigger problems on hand," I said.

"What's wrong?" Sam asked.

"David called me a few nights ago to tell me he wanted me to come home to sign divorce papers. I could sense that I was being taped. Kind of like a tracking device almost. And…"

"And the FBI is looking to talk to her about us," I said as I finished off Athena's sentence.

"What do you mean?" Sam asked.

"David said they were looking to talk to me about the four of you. He didn't say what because the FBI didn't say anything to him about it. Confidentiality or something. But so not the point. The point is, something is wrong and it involves the FBI," she replied.

"Kiki's disappearance?" Dean asked.

"Good possibility, but you can't take anything too lightly," I replied.

"Was he able to track you?" Sam asked, causing her to shrug.

"Maybe, but we were gone within good hour or two after he called me," she replied.

"Ok. So now what?" I asked.

"Well, they can't exactly get to us because we're hundreds of miles from where we were several nights ago. And they have no way of knowing where we're going because we don't even know where we're going half the time until a case pops up in our faces. I say we just put it in the back of our minds for now and focus on the task at hand. Finding this Gallagher kid before he does anymore damage," Dean said, causing me to sigh but nod my head. He was right. We were too clean about where we stayed and anything left behind. There was no way they could track us. Right?

"You with us, princess?" I snapped out of my thoughts and looked toward Dean.

"I'm here. So where are we going again?" I asked as I got into the car and Dean headed off.

"Orchard Street," Sam replied.

"And he's really driving a polar bear van?" Athena asked.

"How hard is that going to be to find?" I asked as I leaned between the two boys and looked over the information they had gathered from Andrew's last boss.

"Yatzee." I looked up and immediately had to cover my mouth to stop from laughing. This lady wasn't kidding when she said that he drove around in a van with a barbarian queen riding a polar bear painted on the side. Who drove this kind of stuff anymore in this century?

"I'm sorry, but I'm starting to like this dude. That van is sweet," Dean said with a slight chuckle.

"You would. I bet you would trade him this for that," I said, causing him to give me a glare and flip me off. I merely rolled my eyes and turned my attention back to the van as Dean looked over at his brother.

"What's wrong?" he asked, causing me to glanced over at Sam and raise an eyebrow at his expression. I hope he wasn't going to do anything stupid.

"Nothing," Sam replied, shaking his head.

"You look like you're sucking a god damn lemon. What's going on?" he asked.

"This Andrew Gallagher. He's the second guy like this that we've found. Demon came when they were kids and now they kill people," Sam replied, causing me to sigh. I knew where this conversation was leading to.

"We don't know what Andrew is. He could be innocent for all we know," he said.

"My visions haven't been wrong yet," Sam said.

"What's your point?" he asked.

"My point is I'm one of them," Sam replied, causing me to rub my temples in frustration. I hated when Sam did this to himself.

"Sam, no, you're not. Don't do this to yourself," Athena said as she leaned forward to get into the conversation at hand.

"You guys, the demon said that he had plans for me and children like me. Dean, you and Artemis were there that night he said it. Maybe this is his plan. Maybe were all a bunch of psychic freaks. Maybe we're all suppose to be…"

"A bunch of killers?" Dean asked.

"Yeah," he replied with a nod.

"So what? The demon wants you out there killing people with your fucking minds, is that it? Give me a break. You're not a murderer, Sam. You don't have it in your bones," Dean said.

"No? The last I checked, I kill all kinds of things," he said, causing me to sigh.

"Sam…"

"Those things were asking for it, Sam. There's a difference," Dean said as he cut me off, causing me to give him a glare that he merely ignored as he kept his attention focused on his brother.

"Got him." I turned my head toward Athena, in which she was pointing at some kind of guy walking down the street. Moving myself so I could see clearly, I noticed that the guy was just leaving a two story like home and waving to a woman, who actually looked way out of his league but nonetheless was waving good-bye to him, before heading down the street. I raised an eyebrow as he stopped to talk to a guy that literally just handed over his coffee to him.

"Bloody weird," I muttered as I looked to Athena, who nodded. Something was off about this guy. Extremely off.

"That's him. That older guy. That's him. He's the shooter." I looked back out the window at Sam's sentence and noticed that Andrew had stopped for a split second to say hello to a man that I too immediately recognized from the vision. Andrew was definitely connected somehow if he seemed to know the guy.

"Well, you keep on him. I'll stick with Andy. You take Artemis with you since she had that same vision and I'll keep Athena with me. Go," Dean said, causing Sam and I to quickly get out of the car and start to tail the guy.

"Give me your hand," Sam said, causing me to turn from watching Dean and Athena speed off after Andrew to Sam as he held out his hand.

"What?" I asked.

"It'll look less suspicious," he said, causing me to give him a crazy look before placing my hand in his. I had to admit it was a pretty good idea because it gave us more cover, but still. It was really awkward.

"So what's the plan?" I asked as we maneuvered our way around people, trying to keep an eye on the guy so that we could try and prevent his death. Which I really don't know how that was going to work since the last time Sam had these visions involving Max Miller, all of his victims but one died. Great.

"Try to keep him from shooting himself like the vision showed. I don't exactly have a plan in mind per say about keeping him from doing so. I guess you might say we're going on whatever comes to us. Hang on. He's answering his phone," he replied, stopping in his tracks and trying hard to listen in on the conversation the guy was having while he tried to appear normal.

"That conversation is exactly how the vision went, Sam," I said as I noticed the Blue Ridge stick on the bus coming toward us.

"Come on. I think I've got an idea," he said as we hurried across the street into the shop where the guy would eventually meet his end. A few people looked up at us as we came in but they merely went back to what they were doing as if it were nothing. I guess they were use to strangers or something. I was drawn out of my thoughts, however, as I heard an alarm start to go off and Sam pull me with him right back out the door.

"What did you…." But I stopped talking when I realized Sam had pulled the alarm somehow and the doctor was now walking away from the shop. Something in the alarm had to break the trance that he was in, which was a good thing if you asked me.

"What the…" I broke from my thoughts and looked up just in time to see a '67 Chevy Impala driving by us with Andrew in the driver's seat and a cell phone in his hand. It couldn't be. Could it?

"Sam, did I just see what I think I just saw?" I asked, looking up at him as he pulled out his cell phone and dialed Dean's number.

"You did. Dean, Andy's got the Impala," he said as I assumed Dean had picked up. Looking away from Sam, I stared in the direction the Impala had gone, but it had completely disappeared from our sight as we tried to make sure that we had really seen what we did. As I made to turn back to Sam, the guy from our vision caught my attention. He was just closing up his cell phone and starting to walk across the street, which had a bus coming down from one side.

"Sam," I snapped, causing him to turn around and go wide-eyed and before either of us could do anything, the guy was hit full on by the bus. I stared at the scene horrified before I turned and buried my face into Sam's chest. We couldn't save him. We had tried by keeping him out of the gun store, but he had walked himself right in front of a moving bus in front of us and we couldn't do anything about it. Nothing.

"Come on. Dean and Athena are on their way," he said as he lead me across the street to a an area where we could get a good look at what was going as people were screaming and sirens could be heard in the air. What was going on? Why was this Andrew kid doing this? Why was he killing these innocent people?

"Are you two alright?" I looked up from my thoughts as Dean and Athena came toward us.

"Yeah. But we can't say so for him. I kept him out of the gun store. Thought he was okay. I thought he was past it, at least….We should've stayed with him," Sam replied as he voiced what we were both thinking. There was no doubt that we were feeling somewhat guilty about this.

"Hey. Don't feel bad. It's not your fault this bastard tried to do something that you guys couldn't expect. This is not your fault. You hear me?" Athena asked as she knelt next to us. I sighed and leaned into Sam for comfort as they covered up the guy's body and started to take him away. This was starting to make my head hurt.

"Come on. Let's go see if we can't find out where the Impala is. I really want to bash that guy's face into a brick wall or something for taking it," Dean said as he helped me up and we started walking.

"I just don't get it. You don't even let me drive your god damn bloody car and you let some bloody fucking stranger drive it? What's wrong with you?" I asked as I gave him a look.

"I didn't give it to him. Ok. Well I did. But it wasn't me. It was like he Obi-wan'd me. He asked me for it and I let him take it. Mind control or something," he replied, causing me to raise an eyebrow.

"Mind control? I've never heard of anything like that. Are you sure?" I asked, causing both Dean and Athena to look at me with glares.

"We're pretty fucking sure, Artemis. You know damn well I wouldn't have given my fucking car to anyone. Oh thank god," he said as we rounded the corner to see the Impala sitting on the other side of the street. There was no sign of Andrew or where he could have possibly have gone, but the Impala was there and she looked to be in the same perfect condition that she was when she was taken.

"I'm sorry, baby. I'll never leave you again. At least he left the keys in it," Dean said as he looked the car over for any damages or whatnot.

"Yeah. A real Samaritan," Sam said with sarcasm.

"Well it looks like he can't work his mojo by twitching his nose. He's got to use verbal commands," he said as Athena nodded in agreement.

"There's no way he can just get what he wants by snapping fingers or whatnot. There was something in his voice that had to of made us get out of the car so that he could drive away," she said.

"Doctor had just gotten off his cell phone when he stepped in front of that bus. Andy must have called or something," Sam said.

"He was on a cell phone or something was to his ear when we saw him drive by us, Sam," I said, causing him to nod in agreement.

"I don't know. Maybe," Dean said, causing Sam and I to look at him in question.

"I beg your pardon?" Sam asked.

"I just don't know if he's our guy," he replied.

"Dean, you had O.J. convicted before he got out of his white Bronco and you have doubts about this?" Sam asked in disbelief. I couldn't blame him. Andrew was our only suspect and he was not willing to believe it even for a moment? What was wrong with him?

"He just doesn't seem like the stone-cold-killer type, that's all. You know? And O.J. was guilty," he replied.

"Either way, how the hell are we going to track this guy down? He's eluded debt collectors this far with his power, so tracking him down is going to be kind of hard," Athena said as I nodded in agreement.

"Not a problem. Come on," Dean said as he got into the Impala. Sam, Athena, and I looked to one another before looking toward Dean as he started up the car. I seriously didn't like where this was going at all.

* * *

"It's not exactly an inconspicuous ride. Let's just have a look." I rolled my eyes as Athena and I stood back slightly as Dean used some kind of item to open up the back door of Andrew's van. How Dean thought this was going to help was beyond me. If anything, it would only tell us what kind of freak he was outside of his power or whatever.

"Oh come on. This is magnificent, that's what this is," Dean said with a chuckle. I peered around him and let out a snort of laughter. You had to be kidding me, right? It was like a disco themed van that he was trying to seduce women with, which I had to highly doubt worked outside of his mind control or whatever.

"It's not exactly a serial killer's lair though. There's no clown paintings on the wall or scissors stuck in victims' photos. But the tiger…" I scoffed and looked over to Sam to see if he came up with anything interesting other than Dean's normal blabber that really made no sense at times. I swear I didn't understand how he could be so talented in this area of hunting but still have the mentality that he did. It confused and irritated the hell out of me.

"Hegel, Kant, Wittgenstein. That's some pretty heavy reading, Dean," Sam said as he sifted through a thing of books that this kid had.

"Yeah, and Moby Dick's bong," Dean said, causing me to roll my eyes as Dean picked up a smoke bong or whatever you wanted to call it that stereotypical teenagers used when they went away from home to college. Other than that, there really wasn't anything that we could find on this guy and it was really irritating me as we headed for food before reparking so that we could keep an eye on the van. This whole case was irritating me because it just didn't make any sense and I hated when things didn't make any sense.

"Bleh…You know, one day, I'd love to just sit down and eat something I didn't have to microwave at a mini-mart," Dean said as he tossed the wrapper from his burger back toward us, causing Athena to put it into the makeshift garbage bag that we put together so that we didn't have to sit in the garbage Dean tossed back there because he was too lazy to just throw it in a trash can.

"You and everyone else who travels around the bloody country," I muttered as I finished off my salad and tossed it into the trash.

"What I don't get is the motive. I mean, the doctor was squeaky-clean. Why would Andy waste him?" Sam asked as he shifted through papers of information he had gotten about the doctor.

"If it is Andy," Dean said, causing me to roll my eyes in irritation as I leaned over the front seat to help Sam out.

"Dude, enough," Sam said as he gave his brother a look.

"What?" he asked.

"The doctor was mind-controlled in front of a bus. Andy just happens to have the power of mind control. You do the math," Sam replied.

"And it really isn't that hard to figure it out," I added.

"I just don't think he's got it in him," Dean said, causing me to raise an eyebrow as I looked at him. Say what?

"How the hell would you know? Why are you defending him?" Sam asked.

"I just don't think you're right about this," he replied.

"About Andy?" Sam asked.

"Hey. You think I haven't seen you four?" I let out a scream as a bang came from the side of the Impala and Andrew's face appeared in the window.

"Why are you following me?" he asked.

"Well, we're lawyers. A relative of yours has passed…."

"Tell the truth," he said as he cut Sam off.

"That's what I'm…"

"We hunt demons." I looked over to Dean in shock as those words fell out of his mouth. What the hell was he thinking doing this?

"What?" Andrew asked as he looked at him.

"Dean…"

"Demons, spirits, etc. Things your worst nightmares wouldn't even touch. You name it and we hunt it."

"Athena!" I exclaimed as I whirled around to look at her in shock as well. What the bloody hell is going on here? Was he mind controlling them?

"Sam here is my brother," Dean said as he started to pick up where Athena left off.

"Dean, shut up," Sam said as he gave his brother a look.

"I'm trying. He's psychic. Kind of like you. Well, not really like you. He thinks you're a murderer and he's afraid he'll be one because you're all part of something terrible. I hope to fucking hell that he's wrong, but I'm starting to get scared that he might be right," Dean said, causing me to stare at him mouth open and wide-eyed at everything that just tumbled out. This was definitely not Dean nor Athena for that matter. What the hell was this kid doing to control them? His words?

"Okay. You know what? Just leave me alone," Andrew said as he started to back away from the car.

"Okay," Dean said as he reached over to start the car, which caused me to smack both him and Athena upside the head before quickly getting out of the car behind Sam. Whatever this kid was doing was certainly not working on me or Sam, which kind of scared me a little bit because I knew I wasn't a special child like Sam or Andrew.

"What are you doing? Look, I said leave me alone. Alright? Get out of here. Just start driving and never stop," he said as he backed away from me and Sam with fright as we walked toward him without a problem.

"Doesn't seem to work on us, Andy," Sam said, causing Andrew to look at him with a shock expression.

"What?" he asked.

"You can make people do things, can't you. You can tell them what to think," Sam replied as he pointed toward the Impala where Dean and Athena were getting out.

"Look, that's crazy," he said as he shook his head.

"It all started a few years ago, didn't it? Maybe two or three? Something like that? After you turned 22. Little stuff, but then you got better at controlling it," Sam said.

"How do you know all this?" he asked.

"Same thing happened to me, Andy. My mom died in a fire too. I have abilities too. You see, we're connected," Sam replied.

"You know what? Just get out of here," he said as he started to get upset.

"It's not working on us, Andrew. It doesn't work on Sam and I so cut the bloody bullshit. Why did you tell that doctor to walk in front of a bus?" I asked, causing him to stop and look at me in confusion.

"What?" he asked.

"I don't like to repeat myself, Andrew. And I don't like games. What…" But I stopped talking as I felt the piercing pain of Sam's vision starting and I grabbed onto Sam's arm for some kind of support. I could see a woman at a gas station and a fire. Like she was setting herself purposely on fire. It was too blurry to tell at that second.

"Why did you kill him?"

"I didn't." I could vaguely hear Sam and Andy's exchange before I let out a cry of pain and felt my grip loosening on Sam's arm as I fell toward the ground. I was vaguely aware of someone's arms going around me as I felt my body start to spasm with the vision.

"_Hello? Sure. I can do that." _

"Artemis!"

_A lady hung up a cell phone and reached into her car to push in the cigarette lighter thing before walking toward the back of the car and pulling the nozzle out of the gas tank. She started to pour the gasoline from the line all over her body._

"_Hey! Lady, what are you doing?" A service man asked as he noticed her actions and started toward her._

"Artemis, wake up. Sam!"

"_It's okay," she said as she brought the cigarette lighter from the car toward her body._

"_Lady, no. No!"_

"Artemis!" I gasped for air as my eyes shot open to see Dean holding me against him as Athena tried to hold Sam up right as he held his head in his hands. Andy was staring at us with shock as he didn't seem to know what to do or say about the situation.

"Sam, what is it? Princess, can you hear me?" Dean asked as he looked between both of us with concern.

"Look, I didn't do anything to him," Andy said as he knelt down beside us with concern.

"A woman burning alive," Sam replied as he looked to his brother.

"What else did you get? Artemis, I need you to talk to me. I need to make sure you're alright," Dean said as he slightly dumped water from a water bottle Athena grabbed from the car over my face. I let out a cough as Dean sat me up just slightly.

"A gas station. A woman is going to kill herself," Sam said as I nodded the best that I could despite the throbbing headache.

"What's he mean, "going to?" What's…"

"Shut up," Dean snapped at Andrew before looking back to Sam.

"She gets triggered by a call on her cell," Sam said.

"When?" he asked.

"I don't know. As long as we keep our eyes on this son of a bitch, he can't hurt her," Sam replied, keeping his eyes locked on Andrew as Athena helped him stand.

"I didn't hurt anybody," Andrew said as he looked so confused.

"Yeah. Not yet," Sam said with slight malice behind his voice. The sound of sirens started to fill the air, causing them to turn their heads toward the end of the alley. My head was throbbing too much to do much of anything, but I didn't need to be told that a fire truck had just rushed by.

"You two go. I've got Artemis. No, not you. You're staying here with me," Sam said, standing in Andrew's way of leaving as he gently took me from Dean's arm to allow him and Athena to go check out what was going on. I let out a sigh as Sam set me down on a empty crate and held the bottle of water to my lips.

"Drink. It'll help with the headache. Are you alright?" he asked, causing me to nod slightly as I drank some water.

"I don't understand. What's going on?" Andrew asked as he looked at us so confused and his eyes full of questions. I was beginning to think that maybe Dean was right about Andrew not being our guy. It just didn't make any sense.

"When?" I looked to see Sam on his cell phone and I assumed it had to be either Dean or Kiki.

"I don't know, alright? I can't control them. I don't know what the hell is going on," he said as he looked to Andrew and I sighed. Something just didn't make any sense with this case because if I could get anything from that conversation that Sam was having, the woman was probably already dead and Andrew wasn't our perpetrator. The only question then would be who.

"Will somebody please just tell me what's going on? I think you guys owe me an explanation here," Andrew said, causing Sam and I to look at one another before sighing. It was true. We did owe him an explanation. I leant against Sam as he told Andrew what was going on and by the look of his face, I didn't blame him for being perplexed.

"Wait. You get…You see premonitions of people about to die? That's impossible," he said as shook his head.

"A lot of people would say the same thing about what you do," Sam said as Andrew let out a slight scoff.

"Death visions? And what about her? I mean, it looks like she was really affect by it. Does she have visions too? Does she have powers too?" he asked.

"That we don't know. All we know is that she's affected by my premonitions and they've gotten worse with each vision. Her mom died in a fire because her baby brother was suppose to be a special child but we haven't really found any connection just yet between us," Sam replied as I nodded in agreement.

"Dude, that sucks. For you with death visions and for you because you can't control when he has them. I mean, like when I got my mind thing, it was like a gift, you know? It was like I won the lotto," he said

"But you still live in a van, Andrew. I mean, I don't get it. You can have anything you ever wanted. Hell, you took Dean's car for a little joy spin, something he would kill me for. I just don't understand," I said, causing him to sigh just a little bit.

"Please call me Andy. And I've got everything I need," he said.

"So you're really not a killer, huh?" Sam asked as he seemed to read my mind.

"That's what I've been trying to tell you," he replied with a slight chuckle of relief.

"That's good. That means there's hope for both of us," Sam said, causing me to sigh in slight irritation as I stood up. He reached out to grab me but I waved my hands at him to stay put because I was fine to stand up now.

"Sam, I really wish you would stop this. It's getting…" But I didn't finish as Dean and Kiki pulled back into the lot behind me, which meant that I would have to wait to talk to Sam about this. He was killing himself with thinking he was going to be a bad person.

"Victim's name was Holly Beckett, 41, single," Dean said as he got out of the car and headed toward us.

"Who is she?" Sam asked as we looked to Andy.

"Never heard of her," he replied with a slight shrug.

"Dean called Ash on the way back here. He came up with a little something," Athena said.

"Apparently Holly Beckett gave birth when she was 18 years old back in 1983. Same day that you were born, Andy," Dean said, causing me to raise an eyebrow in slight confusion before it hit me pretty quick.

"Andy, were you adopted?" I asked.

"Well, yeah," he replied.

"You were? And you neglected to mention that?" Dean asked, causing me to smack him across the back of the head with a glare.

"Do you really think that would have come up in any of this? We all immediately assumed it was his bloody biological mother that died in that fire, but that just doesn't seem to be the case, now does it?" I asked as he glared at me.

"Alright, you two. That's enough. Let's not start," Athena said as she stepped between us.

"Do you think this Holly woman could actually be my birth mother?" Andy asked.

"I don't know. We tried to get the birth records but they're hard copy only and they're sealed in the county office," Dean replied, causing Andy to scoff.

"Well screw that."

* * *

**Dean's POV**

"He's starting to scare me just a little bit." I let out a chuckle as Artemis and I pulled another box off the shelf and watched as Andy sweet talked the guard into letting us look through the files. Although I was still a bit pissed off about the whole car thing earlier, I was at least relieved that I was right about Andy not being a killer. It made things a little bit easier.

"Got it."

"Yeah?" I asked as we stopped what we were doing to look at Sam as he fiddled around with the computer.

"Yeah. Andy, it's true. Holly Beckett was your birth mother. Dr. Jennings was her doctor too. I mean, he oversaw the adoption. You have a solid connection to them," he replied.

"But it doesn't make any sense, Sam. I mean, we were with him when Holly Beckett burned herself alive and I'm pretty sure that he didn't make the doctor walk in front of that bus despite of what we thought earlier," Artemis said.

"So what we're looking for is who did," I added.

"I think I got a pretty good guess. Holly Beckett gave birth to twins," Sam said, causing us to all look at him in shock. Twins? You had to be kidding me, right?

"I have an evil twin," Andy said as he tried to soak in all the information.

"Holly put you and your brother up for adoption. You went to the Gallagher family, obviously. And your brother went to the Weems family from upstate," Athena said as she came toward us with a file in her hand.

"Andy, how you doing? Still with us?" I asked as I looked to him to make sure that he was alright.

"Um…What was my brother's name?" he asked.

"Um…here it is. Anson Weems. He's got a local address," Athena replied as she handed Sam the file to take a look at.

"He lives here?" he asked in shock.

"Let's get a look at him. There's a picture coming over from the DMV right now," I said as the machine I was fiddling with started to produce papers. Taking them from the machine, I began to sift through them for the photo and stopped when I saw it.

"Dean? What is it?" Artemis asked as she peered over my arm to get a look at the photo. You had to be kidding me, right?

"Dean?" Sam asked.

"I hate to kick you while you're still freaked. Take a look at that," I said as I handed the photo over to Andy, who stared at it for a second before his eyes went into shock.

"Dean, what's going on? Is this our guy?" Artemis asked as she gave me a look.

"We'll tell you when we get to the car. We need to find this guy. We need to go now," I said as I started for the door. The others were quick to follow and it wasn't long before we were on our way to finding this guy.

"All right, Andy. tell us everything you know about this guy," Sam said.

"It would help also to know who this guy is. You two had to of come across him without Athena or I there," Artemis said as she sat between the two of us sifting through everything we could get our hands on about Anson Webber.

"He works at the coffee shop or whatever that Andy worked at," I replied.

"There's really not much to it. Webber shows up one day, like, eight months ago acting like he's my best friend in the whole world. Kind of weird, like trying too hard," Andy said.

"He must of known that they were twins," Athena said.

"So why change his name? Why not just tell Andy the truth?" I asked, causing Andy to shrug.

"I have no idea," he said.

"I'm going to have permanent brain damage from you, Sam. Bloody fucking hell!" I looked over at Artemis as she suddenly leant forward with her head in her hands as Sam's hand kept going over his eyes in the same way he always did when he was having one of his freaky visions.

"Sam? Artemis?" I asked as I pulled the car to a stop quickly and grabbed at Artemis as she started to freak out. I really couldn't understand what was going on with these two, especially since Artemis was always fucking freaking out. Spazzing out would be the more appropriate term for it. I just didn't remember her connection being this strong or this violent for that matter.

"Sam, are you alright? Talk to me, Sam," Athena said as Sam started to come to.

"A woman. Jumping off a dam or something. She looks familiar though. Almost like the woman from the shop or something," he said with a slight wince.

"Tracy?" Andy asked as worry started to fill his voice just a little bit.

"We don't know but what we do know is that your twin is about to off another innocent person," I replied.

"How's Artemis?" Sam asked as he turned around to look at me.

"Like a truck hit me. I swear we got to find a way to get around this, Sam. My mind can only take so much," Artemis replied as I helped her sit up, keeping an arm around her just in case. Although it was probably out of familiarity. Like it was natural. I didn't really know.

"We need to figure this out, Artemis. I'm really sorry," he said as she sighed.

"We don't have time for this right now, Sam. I hear you, but this is going to have to wait. Who the hell is that girl and how the bloody hell do we find her? She could be anywhere," she said.

"How far to this dam, Andy?" I asked as I looked back at him.

"A few minutes maybe. Why?" he asked.

"Because you're going to tell me how to get there. And you're going to tell me now," I said, starting up the car as Athena got in before taking off. I just hoped that we weren't too late like the last one. The last thing I needed was something else on Sam and Artemis' conscious.

* * *

**Artemis' POV**

"Dean, you and Athena should stay back."

"No argument here. I've had my head screwed with enough for one day."

"That shouldn't be a surprise to you, Dean, since you get your head messed with every day." I merely let out a smirk and stuck a gun into the back of my jeans as Dean gave me a glare.

"If you didn't mean so much to Athena and Sam, I'd take this gun and put a bullet through your head," he said, holding up my other hand gun. I merely rolled my eyes and grabbed it out of his hands.

"I'm coming with you." I looked up from the trunk as Andy got out of the car and came toward us.

"Andy, no," Sam said, shaking his head.

"If it's Tracy out there, then I'm coming," he said, causing me to roll my eyes.

"Another guy head over heels in love for a girl ready to die at a moment's notice for her. How sweet. You could take a point or two from him, Dean," I said, causing him to scoff as he turned to look at me.

"So it's finally coming out. I was waiting for this day. You shouldn't be saying something like that when it talks about you just as much," he said.

"Oh yeah. Like you would be willing to die on a moment's notice for me or for any other girl you've fallen or will be falling head over heels in love with. Tell me, Dean. Could you really honestly put yourself in Andy's shoes? Go risk his mortal neck for a girl he has feelings for? I mean, sure you could do it once, but I'd bet my life to say that you wouldn't do it again," I said.

"Artemis, that's enough," Athena snapped as she stepped between us.

"Athena's right. We don't have time for this. You two are always picking the wrong time to fight out this inevitable lust/love you two still have for one another. Come on. We haven't got much time," Sam said as he grabbed me by the arm and pulled me away from him.

"Let me go, Sam," I snapped as I yanked my arm away from him.

"Artemis, you can't do this right now. Not now. We have to focus on getting the girl away from Anson. You can fight with Dean later," he said, causing me to scoff and shake my head.

"Whatever, Sam. What the hell is your plan? This guy is going to no doubt try something on us," I said, pulling my gun out of safety as we came close to the dam.

"Just don't allow him to get the girl to jump over to her death. Andy, we're going to take care of your brother, alright? You just get the girl away from him, alright?" Sam asked, looking to Andy as we started to come upon a car, which was no doubt Anson.

"Yeah. Ok," he said with a shaky nod. Checking to make sure that my gun was ready, I pulled Andy with me to the other side of the car as Sam broke the window and ordered Anson out of the car.

"Tracy! Come here, come here," Andy said as I threw open the passenger side door and he pulled her from the car.

"Andy, I can't! I can't control myself," she cried as he pulled her into his arms and held her tight.

"Don't let her go. Whatever you do, don't let go," I snapped before I hurried around the car to Sam, who was holding Anson down to the ground with the gun to his head. I made to help him, but I was shoved out of the way as Andy rushed past me and covered Anson's mouth with duck tape before starting to kick him.

"No, no," Sam snapped as he shoved Andy back toward me.

"I will kill you!" he yelled as he tried to get back at his brother.

"Andy, stop it! Don't!" I yelled as I tried my best to keep him from going anywhere, which was proving to be a lot more difficult than I thought it could be. He was like a bloody fucking bull and nothing seemed to want to stop him. And it didn't help that he accidentally knocked my gun from my hand. However, that didn't matter as the sound of Sam hitting the ground with a groan made me turn around and duck just in time as a tree branch came toward my head.

"Tracy, stop. I said, stop it," Andy said as she made to take another swipe at me. For once I was grateful for once of Andy having this power because I really didn't want to fight for my life with a girl who was under mind-control and was swinging a huge tree branch. Not the best of fights. The sound of tape being ripped caused me to turn toward Anson as he stood up spitting blood.

"How did you do that?" Andy asked as I realized that the command for Tracy to attack me and Sam wasn't verbally commanded. It was like a literal mind order.

"Practice, bro. If you'd just practice, you would know. Sometimes, you don't need to use your words. If you have to, all you need is this. Sometimes the headache's worth it," he replied, pointing to his head as he walked toward us. I could feel my temper starting to rise and Sam on the ground not moving wasn't helping it any.

"You twisted son of a bitch," Andy said as he made a lunge at Anson.

"Back off, Andy, or Tracy's going to do a little flying. Maybe I'll make her do a little bit of flying too. You'd like that, wouldn't you, sweetie? You'll definitely be an angel. Go ahead. You and Tracy both go take a dive," he said as he looked over at me with a slight smirk.

"Your mind games don't work on me, Anson. You can go take that flying lesson for your bloody fucking self," I said with a glare, which caused him to look at me in slight shock, but it vanished within a second as he smirked.

"That's alright. Tracy can go by herself. Right, Trace?" he asked, causing both Andy and I to look toward the damn edge where Tracy was standing. Just like the vision.

"Bloody fuck," I muttered as I quickly turned myself around and started toward her.

"Don't even think about it. One more move and she goes," Anson said, causing me to stop dead in my tracks and look back at him with a major glare. I really bloody hated this guy and I wanted nothing more than to put a bullet to his head more so than I wanted to with Dean.

"I'm stronger than you. I can do it," he said, causing Andy to quickly let go of his brother and back away.

"Okay, okay, okay. All right. Just please don't hurt her," Andy said.

"Don't be mad at me, okay? I know that it's all wrong. I didn't mean for this to happen. It's just…Tracy's trying to come between us," he said.

"You're insane," Andy said as he shook his head.

"She's garbage. Man, they all are. We can push them. We can make them do whatever we want," he said. I merely snorted in disgust at what was coming out of this guy's mouth. I could tell that this was not going to end up good.

"Are you really this stupid? Is it…You learn you got a twin and you call him up. You go out for a drink. You don't start killing people," Andy said as he started to get upset.

"I wanted to tell you for so long, bro. But he didn't let me. He said I had to wait until the time…"

"Who?" Andy asked.

"The man with the yellow eyes," he replied, causing my eyes to widen as his words sunk into my mind. You had to be bloody shitting me. What the hell was the yellow-eyed demon up to? Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Sam starting to come too, but I kept my mind upon the brothers because I knew nothing good was going to come out of this conversation about yellow eyes.

"What are you talking about?" Andy asked.

"He came to me in my dreams. He said I was special. He told me he's got big plans for me. Wait until you see what's in store, Andy, for both of us. See, he's the one who told me that I had a brother. A twin. He…"

"Did he also tell you he was responsible for your brother's mother's death? The death of several other mothers who bore special children? Children like you? Do you think you're the only one that has powers? Huh?" I asked as I walked toward him.

"What would you know? I suggest you go jump off the dam," he replied, causing me to snort with laughter as I stopped several feet in front of him.

"Go ahead and try, Webber. I told you once before that your little powers don't work on me. See, I've got a connection with your yellow-eyed friend and you're not the only one that he's been visiting. You can't harm me. Just like you can't harm your brother because your powers don't work on other special children. So tell me. Why'd you kill your mother? And the doctor? Afraid they might ruin things for you?" I asked.

"They split us up! They ruined our lives. We could have been together this whole time instead of alone. I couldn't let them do that. I couldn't let them get away with that," he replied, causing me to let out a bitter laugh.

"You're one dumb bloody fucker, Anson. The son of a bitch has plans that involve all the special children and he's telling you to off these people because he thinks they're a threat to his plan. Well let me tell you something, Anson. This is not the worst of it. The worst is yet to come and you may not even survive," I said, causing him to stare at me before lunging and pinning me against the car by my throat. Even though I should have been expecting it at some point, he took me by surprise and I struggled against him hard to get him to let go of my throat.

"I don't care who you think you are or if you're one of us. You are not going to ruin this between my brother and I," he said as his grasp tightened and I started to see black spots. However, his grip started to loosen as he looked around before shifting his eyes towards the wood area behind his car.

"I can see you. Bye-bye," he said, causing my eyes to widen in fear as I realized he sensed and saw Dean and Athena in the woods, watching us with a shot gun or whatever ready to strike at any moment.

"No!" I rasped as I started to struggle even more, which caused his grip to tighten even more. However, a shot rang out and Anson's grip loosened completely and he fell to the ground as I grasped onto whatever I could to keep myself from falling as I heaved air back into my lungs. Looking slightly forward, I saw Andy holding my gun in his hands with a wide-eyed look, no doubt trying to believe if he really did just shoot his own flesh and blood. Letting out a small laugh, I let my head fall back against the car as I sank to the ground next to Sam. I hated this bloody fucking job sometimes.

* * *

"Look at him. He's getting better at it." I looked up from my conversation with the paramedic that was taking a look at me from the night's events to look at Sam before looking over in Andy's direction where he was talking with the cops, no doubt telling them whatever to keep our asses out of trouble. I think I liked his ability a lot better than mine or Sam's.

"Well hopefully he'll continue to do good instead of evil like his brother. I didn't exactly like having to point a gun at my throat, especially since it was me having to do it," Athena said, causing me to chuckle just slightly before turning my attention to Andy as he walked toward us.

"She won't even look at me," he said.

"Yeah, she's pretty shaken up," Sam said with a nod.

"No, its….This is different. This is, uh…I never used my mind thing on her before last night. She's scared of me now," he said, causing me to sigh.

"I'm really sorry about that, Andy," I said with a sympathetic smile, causing him to nod.

"Andy, I really hate to do this, but we have to get out of here. Here. I wrote down my cell. You don't have to be alone in this, alright? If anything comes up, you call me up," Sam said as he gave him a piece of paper.

"Wha…What am I suppose to do now?" he asked, looking at us as we started walking away.

"Be good, Andy. Or we'll be back," Dean replied before we walked away from him completely.

"Well, looks like I was right," Sam said as we got out of earshot of everyone.

"About what?" he asked as he gave his brother a look.

"Andy. Looks like he's a killer after all," Sam replied.

"No, he's a hero. He saved his girlfriend, he saved mine and Athena's life, and he saved Artemis' life. If it hadn't been for Andy, we'd be dead, man. And Anson would probably be going on more killing sprees like the psycho that he is," he said.

"Well the bottom line is, he wasted somebody last night," Sam said.

"But he's not a foaming-at-the-mouth psycho, Sam. He was just…he was just pushed into that," he said.

"Webber was pushed too, in his own way. Max Miler was pushed. Hell! I was even pushed by Jessica's death," Sam said as we stopped walking.

"So what's the point you're trying to make, Sam?" I asked.

"My point is, right circumstances, everyone's capable of murder. Everyone. You know something? Maybe that's what the demon's doing. Pushing us, trying to find ways to break us," he replied as he gave me a look.

"We don't know what the demon wants, okay? Quit worrying about it, okay?" Dean asked as he walked toward the driver's side of the Impala.

"You know something? I heard you before, Dean, when Andy made you tell the truth. You're just as scared about this shit coming up like it is as I am," he said.

"That was mind control. It's like being roofied, man. It doesn't count," Dean said, causing me to raise an eyebrow.

"What?" I asked.

"No, I'm calling do-over," he replied.

"What are you? Seven?" Sam asked with a scoff.

"It doesn't matter. We got to keep doing what we've been doing. Finding Kiki and finding that evil son of bitch now that he's starting this shit up again after so long," he replied. I merely rolled my eyes at his antics and got into the car as his cell phone began to ring. It wasn't long before Dean got into the car with a look on his face.

"What?" Sam asked.

"We're going to Ellen's," he replied as he started up the car and took off. Ellen's? What the hell did she want now?

* * *

"So, you want to tell me about this last hunt of yours?" I looked up from my beer as Jo left the room to get another case of beer and Ellen leaned against the bar in front of us with a look on her face.

"No, not really. No offense, but it's just kind of a family thing. Or kind of," Dean replied as I smacked him against the back of the head to rephrase his answer.

"Not anymore. I got this stuff from Ash. Andrew Gallagher's house burned down on his 6-month birthday just like your house. You think it was the demon both times, don't you? You think it went after Gallagher's family?" she asked as she tossed some papers onto the bar top.

"Yeah, we think so," Sam replied with a nod.

"Sam," I said as I spoke for both Dean and I. She really didn't need to know any of this. It had nothing to do with her.

"Why?" Ellen asked, ignoring me as she looked to Sam.

"It's none of your business," Dean replied hotly.

"You mind your tongue with me, boy. You watch yourself too, girlie. This isn't just your war. This is war. Something big and bad is coming, and it's coming fast. Their side holds all the cars. Now, at best, all we got is us. Together. No secrets or half-truths," she said, causing me to roll my eyes.

"You don't think we know that something is coming, Ellen? That son of a bitch has got something big up his sleeve and it's going to be damn well near perfect when executed with him having stayed hidden the last year or two," I snapped as I slammed my glass onto the table.

"What are you talking about?" Dean asked as he gave me a look.

"Whatever he's got planned for us, I don't think the world is going to survive it. More than likely we'll probably all end up bloody fucking dead," I replied.

"What is she going on about?" Ellen asked as she looked to the two boys.

"I don't know. I've never heard her speak this way before. Artemis?" Sam asked as he looked at me.

"There are people out there, Ellen. People like Sam and Andy Gallagher. And they all have some kind of bloody ability. Some psychic ability. Andy can control people with his voice and Sam has premonitions. It's kind of different for everybody. Now, the last time we came across him, he said he's got plans for everyone like Sam and Andy. We can confirm it that he's still got that plan underway with Anson Webber's words last night," I replied.

"Are these people dangerous?" she asked.

"No. Not all of them. And where is this going, Artemis?" Dean asked.

"Some of them are dangerous, Ellen. Anson Webber or whatever the hell his name is was one of them last night. He was killing innocent people because the bloody yellow-eyed bastard was telling him to. That these people were in the way of the final destination point. Who knows how many of them are out there," I replied.

"So we don't know how many are out there. What about a pattern?" she asked.

"We've been able to track a pattern so far. They've all had house fires the night of the kid's 6-month birthday," Dean replied.

"That's not true," Sam said.

"What?" Athena asked.

"Anson's files were clean. There was no house fire," I replied.

"Exactly. There's nothing out of the ordinary," Sam added.

"It breaks pattern. If there's others like him, there'd be nothing in the system. No way of really knowing how to track them all down," Ellen said, causing me to nod.

"Ok. But I'm still not understanding where you're going with your point, Artemis," Dean said as he looked at me.

"Is she one of them?" Ellen asked, pointing to me.

"No, but her brother was. The demon killed her mother," Athena replied.

"He wasn't after Bryce," I said, causing everyone to just look at me with confusion.

"Wait. You said that your mother died on Bryce's 6-month birthday in his nursery," Sam said, causing me to nod.

"She did. But the yellow-eyed bastard wasn't after Bryce," I said.

"So if he wasn't after Bryce, then what the hell was he doing in your brother's nursery? Why kill your mother if he wasn't after her kid?" Athena asked.

"He was after her kid. Just the wrong kid," I replied.

"Ok. I'm lost. Where is this going?" Dean asked as he let out a growl of irritation.

"The demon's been visiting me ever since I set foot in England over a year ago, Dean. What do you think all the blacking out without much help from Sam was all about? Huh? He comes and goes whenever he pleases. And these visions that I have with Sam? I may not be a special child but this plan that he has for all these special children, it includes me," I replied.

"That doesn't make any sense. You've shown no sign of psychic ability other than when Sam has his visions," Athena said.

"I have the gift of premonitions just like, Sam. And I don't need Sam's help to have them either. I don't really understand the connection between us, but there's something there. I just don't know what," I said.

"I still don't understand where this is going. It doesn't make any sense. What are you trying to say, Artemis?" Dean asked as he stood up.

"My grandmother was a demon, Dean. And whatever the hell yellow eyes has up his sleeve, I'm at the very top of it," I replied, causing Athena's glass to drop out of her hands and crash to the floor as Sam slowly stood up.

"Jo, honey. Better break out the whiskey instead," Ellen said as I sighed. I was in huge trouble. They were not going to handle this too lightly. Especially Sam. But it had to be said. The demon, although staying away for a year or so, was definitely going to hit us hard. And I was going to get the brunt of it before this all was over.

Being the granddaughter of a demon was not going to make this any easier.


	5. No Exit

**Breath of Life**

**Disclaimer****:** I do not own any of the Supernatural characters as they are the property of the Eric Kripke and the CW. I do, however, own Artemis, Kiki, Athena, and any other characters introduced within the story as they are sole property of my mind.

**Summary****: **Zombies, ghosts, demons, and all other supernatural she could handle. The disappearance of her best friend and the confused feelings for Dean she wasn't sure she could handle. Drawn back into hunting after nearly a year, 24 year old Artemis Flora Summers sets out once again with the Winchester boys and her old friend, Athena, to figure out who is behind the kidnapping of Kiki and why they want her. However, things begin to take unexpected turns when Artemis finds herself facing more of her past as her connection to Sam becomes more apparent and strong. What happens when she realizes that she's destined to follow in the footsteps of her ancestors? Can she shed those icy layers again to allow Sam and Dean, especially Dean, back in? Or has she finally met her end?

* * *

**No Exit**

"I am your mother! I don't have to be reasonable!"

"You can't keep me here!"

"Don't you bet on that, sweetie!"

"What are you going to do? Chain me up in the basement?"

"You know what? You've had worse ideas than that recently. You know what? You don't want to stay, don't. Go back to school."

"I didn't belong there. I was a freak with a knife collection."

"Yeah, but getting yourself killed on a dusty back road, that's where you belong?"

"What's going on here?" I merely let out a smirk as Dean and Sam came walking toward Athena and I as we finished eating. The lovely little fight that was going on between mother and daughter was probably the best entertainment I had had in a few weeks. Minus all the fights and arguments I had been in with Dean.

"Cat fight between mother and daughter. Mother won't let her daughter go out on a hunt. It's quite entertaining," Athena said, shaking her head as I took our dishes and let them drop onto the bar with a clatter, which caused both women to turn around and look at us.

"Forget that we were still sitting here in the roadhouse?" I asked, sarcastically.

"Guys, bad time. I'm sorry," Ellen said.

"Yes ma'am," Sam said.

"Yeah, we rarely drink before 10 anyway," Dean added as he grabbed me by the arm and started dragging me back toward the front door. I really didn't want to go anywhere because it was actually getting good, but I had to admit I was really in no mood to deal with two bitchy women.

"Wait. I want to know what they think about this. Especially the two girls," Jo said, causing us to stop and look back at the pair. She wanted our opinion? Seriously?

"I don't care what they think," Ellen said.

"Are you guys open?" I turned my head and sighed as a family of tourist stood there staring at all of us as both Ellen and Jo shouted out two different answers. Poor people.

"We'll just check out the Arby's down the road," the guy said before he ushered his family out the door. I looked over at Sam, in which he merely shrugged with a slight guilty look on his face. Yeah. Poor people. I was snapped out of thoughts as the sound of the telephone ringing and watched as both Jo and Ellen stared between each other and the telephone.

"You know something? You might want to answer the phone so that the person on the other end doesn't have to suffer because the two of your are bitching at one another," I said, causing Dean to put his hand over my mouth as Ellen gave me a glare before walking around the bar to answer the phone. I shoved Dean's hand off of my mouth with a glare as Jo turned to us once her mother seemed engaged in her conversation.

"Three weeks ago, a young girl disappears from a Philadelphia apartment. Take it. It won't bite," she said as she shoved a folder toward us.

"No, but your mom might," Dean said, causing me to roll my eyes before grabbing the folder out of her hand and slamming it against his chest. He gave me a dirty look, but I merely flipped him off before turning my attention back to Jo as she began to speak again.

"And this girl wasn't the first. Over the past 80 years, six women have vanished. All from the same building, all young blondes. Only happens every decade or two, so the cops never eyeball the pattern. So we're either dealing with a very old serial killer or…"

"Who put this together? Ash?" Dean asked as he looked up from the folder.

"I did it myself," she replied, causing him to raise an eyebrow in amazement.

"I got to admit that we hit the road for a lot less," Sam said as he looked at us.

"Good. You like the case so much, you four take it," Ellen said as she came back toward us with a serious look upon her face. She was dead set on keeping her daughter out of this hunting game. But why?

"Mom…"

"Joanna Beth, this family has lost enough. I won't lose you too. I just won't," she said as she cut her daughter off. I watched Ellen exchange a look with the boys, but I kept my mouth shut for once because I wasn't about to go stir the pot in something that didn't involve me. After spending a few more minutes in the Roadhouse, we headed off to Pennsylvania.

"I just don't get it. Jo's old enough to make her own decisions. I mean, our way of living is not exactly perfect, but she's lived it enough to maybe do some hunting. Look at what she's put together for us," Dean said.

"She wouldn't be able to handle our job, Dean. I mean, just throwing knives at things or shooting off a gun doesn't mean bloody hell in our world. She'd be killed going out on her own. Besides, I don't think she's cut out for traveling and hunting now matter how she was raised," I said as I leaned between the boys.

"You got something against Jo, Art?" Sam asked as he gave me an amused look.

"I just think she's too girly. And too preppy for my liking. But that's something you like, right Dean?" I asked as I gave me a smirk.

"Shut up, Summers," he replied with a glare.

"Oh come on, Dean. There is not a person that has seen you interact with Jo that doesn't know that she's so into you. I think you've also got a little something for Jo, which you won't act on because you're afraid of Ellen," I said, throwing myself back into my seat with a laugh as he tried to take a hit at me.

"I swear I'm going to kill you when Sam's not around. I'm going to take a gun and put a bullet right through the middle of your eyes. Or better yet, I'm going to cuff you up and torture you until you're begging for me to let you go. Then I'll put a bullet between the middle of your eyes. It's a lot more fun that way," he said.

"And a hell of a lot more kinkier. Did you think of that while I was away from you all that time, Dean? Did you think about all the ways you would torture me for being such a bad girl? Things you wouldn't act upon with Jo because Ellen would have your bloody balls on a silver platter for touching her daughter? Come on, Dean. You know you want to," I taunted as I leaned over the seat again and gave him a cheeky grin. It turned into a smirk as his hands clenched the steering wheel to the point that they were almost turning white and his eyes shifted to me in a glare. I looked over to Sam and chuckled as he looked at me with wide eyes.

"Who are you and what have you done with Artemis?" he asked.

"Oh come on. I had to do something and Dean is always the perfect target. He left himself wide open for that. Besides, I really don't want to talk about Jo and how she moons over him every time she bloody fucking sees him. Also, you two have been slightly avoiding me since I told you about some of my mother's heritage. Do you honestly think I'm wanting to cross that path? Do you really think I'm going to allow myself to be sucked into that yellow-eyed bastard's plan? You have to know me better than that. Especially you, Sam. You know me better than anyone else," I replied, causing him to sigh.

"We don't know what to think, Artemis, to tell you the truth. You're damn good at hiding information and then springing it on us whenever you feel like it. Especially since you kept it from us for so long," he said.

"It wasn't easy on me, Sam. Do you think I wanted to keep this from you? I mean…"

"How would you like me to answer that, Artemis? Because I could give you the god damn fucking answer you're looking for. The right one at that," Dean said, causing me to hit him in the back of the head before throwing myself into my seat so he couldn't retaliate with a hit of his own.

"You know something? If you seriously didn't trust me, I wouldn't be here right now. I would be out on my own searching for Kiki and leaving you bloody jerks to worry about two people instead of just one. If I seriously wanted to join his plan, I would have done it the second he started to invade my dreams. It's hard to pull strength to not give in. Besides, I don't know my entire family's history. Some of the servants were possessed by the time I got the little information I did and they had informed my grandmother about it. That's when I informed you that I was coming home, Sam," I said.

"So what did you do for the rest of the year?" Athena asked.

"I was studying what I did know from the time that I had been with Sam and Dean and used it to see what I could dig up. I told you this when we were all discussing the possible other children," I replied as I gave her a look.

"I just don't like that he's invading your dreams. He could possess you at any time," Sam said, causing me to shake my head.

"He can't. He's afraid too. That much I know. He just likes torturing me I guess. I just don't like that Sam's premonitions give me such a headache. I mean, I've got control of mine pretty well. I just wish I could control yours," I said as I gave him a mock glare, in which he merely flipped me off.

"Can we focus on the possible case here?" Dean asked as he broke into our conversation, causing me to roll my eyes.

"Whatever," I replied as I threw myself back into my seat and dug out my iPod. Of course he didn't want to talk about it. He had been avoiding me for the most part since I had broken the news about my family, which was alright with me for a small part, but it still hurt. Sensing someone staring at me, I lifted my eyes to meet intense green as he stared at me through the rearview mirror. For a second there, I though I saw a flicker of pain and longing, but it was gone just as quickly as it came and he diverted his eyes back on the road as he listened to Sam talk about what Joe had come up with for this possible case. Sighing, I sifted through my songs until I came upon a certain song. Letting my head drop back onto the seat, I sighed and shut my eyes, willing the tears I had forming to not fall as the music played softly in my ears.

* * *

"You getting anything?"

"No, not yet."

"I'm still trying to figure out how a girl goes up and missing without her door being unlocked, her windows being shattered, or whatever. The place doesn't even looked ransacked," I said as I took a look around the apartment while Sam and Dean fiddled with their EMFs and Athena took a look at the door for anything that might possibly suggest kidnapping or whatnot. She had some good skills to pick up the not so subtle things on windows, walls, doors, etc. that most hunters, including myself, would normally miss. Something I slightly envied about her.

"What's that?" I looked up from checking around the kitchen to find Sam staring at something on the wall.

"What?" Dean asked as we made our way toward Sam, in which he was pulling what looked like tar off a undone light switch.

"Holy shit," Sam said as he looked to Dean.

"What is it?" Athena asked as she looked at them in confusion.

"That's ectoplasm," Dean replied, causing me to roll my eyes and smack him in the back of the head, in which he gave me a dirty look.

"What Sam and Dean mean is that they know what we're dealing with. We're dealing with…"

"The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man," Dean cut in snarkily, causing Sam and I to scoff and shake our heads. Typical Dean. Always trying to make a funny remark at the most horrible moments ever.

"Dean, I've only seen this stuff like twice. I mean, to make this kind of stuff, you have to be one majorly pissed-off spirit," Sam said, causing Athena to shake her head.

"I still don't understand. In all of my readings and hunting years, I've never come across something like this with a spirit. Never," she said, causing me to sigh.

"I've never come across it either in my years of hunting, but I've read about it quite a bit. I think it was probably one of the first things that I read about as a little girl. This spirit is seriously pissed off and it's likely that we're not going to be able to find it that easily and get rid of it as easily as we get rid of other spirits," I said, shaking my head.

"All right, so let's try to find this badass before he snags any more girls. Actually, maybe it could come and get you first. Then we'll take care of it," Dean said, causing me to give him a dirty look before Sam rolled his eyes and grabbed me by the arm.

"Now is not the time. Do this later when we do have the time and girls' lives are not at stake," he said, causing me to give him a glare this time but nonetheless keep my mouth shut as we made our way out of the apartment and in search of the guy who owned the building so that we could possible get a room on the floor. Or at least in the building anyways. As we made our way around the corner, a man and a woman's voice could be heard coming toward us and Sam and Dean pulled us back against them as the voices came closer. However, I frowned slightly as the woman's voice sounded so familiar as well as her footsteps. It almost sounded like…

"What the hell are you doing here?" I nearly fell over at the sight of Jo coming toward us with what must have been the owner of the building, but Sam kept a slightly tight arm around my waist to keep my balance steady.

"There you are, honey. This is my boyfriend Dean, his buddy Sam, Sam's girlfriend Artemis, and her friend Athena," Jo said, cuddling up to Dean as she introduced us to the man. Something inside me raged at the sight of Jo with Dean, but I brushed it aside just as quickly as it came as I placed a fake smile on my face and leaned into Sam the way a girl normally did with her boyfriend or fiancée or husband. Whatever the bloody hell you wanted to call it. And it was extremely awkward for me, especially since Sam was married and I didn't exactly like playing these roles knowing that. God I wished Kiki wasn't bloody fucking missing.

"Good to meet you. Quite a gal you got there," the man said, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"Oh yeah. She's a pistol," Dean said as he gave her a slight nudge to the back.

"So, did you already check out the apartment? The one for rent?" Jo asked as she gave us a look.

"You bet. Yes. Loved it. Great flow," Dean replied as the guy gave us a slightly suspicious look.

"How'd you get in?" he asked.

"It was open," he replied. Real smooth, Dean. Real smooth.

"Now, Ed, um…what did the last tenant move out?" Jo asked as she redirected the conversation toward herself. Figures. Girl would do anything to get attention. And I was really not liking this bloody game that she was making us all play.

"Uh…about a month ago. Cut and run too. Stiffed me for the rent," the guy replied.

"Well, her loss and our gain. Because if Dino loves it, it's good enough for me," she said with a sicken sweet smile. Oh bloody gag me please.

"Oh sweetie," Dean said with a slightly stiff chuckle.

"We'll take it," she said, holding out a huge wad of cash. The guy gave her a look as he took the money, but I didn't hear any complaints coming from him. It would probably cover whatever the last girl owed him and whatever it cost to rent the place.

"Okay. And what about you two? You look like a sweet couple ready to settle down," he said as he turned his attention to me and Sam, causing Sam to fluster a bit as he let out a slight cough, but I was not fazed one bit as I chuckled slightly.

"No thanks. We've got a nice little place in downtown Manhattan, which we tried to get these two to come to, but she's just so content and intrigued with Philadelphia. What can I say? We're two city girls that have different loves for the city. Besides, Sam and I don't really think it's wise raising Sam, Jr. here in Philadelphia. We'd like for him to experience the city life of New York before anything else. But thank you so much for your offer. We might take you up on it if we decide to change our mind. Come along, Sam. Let's get them settled into their new apartment so that we can have our small little visit with them. We can't leave little Sammy for too many days with the nanny," I said as I wrapped my arm through Sam's and started dragging him back toward the apartment. Sam, still fazed at what was happening, allowed me to drag him toward the apartment and no sooner had the door shut behind Athena, Dean rounded on me.

"What the fucking hell was that all about?" he asked.

"What did you want me to do, Dean? I had to think quick since Sam over there got himself all flustered at the man's question. Do you think I liked acting like Sam's girlfriend? It was really bloody awkward since the guy has a god damn bloody fucking ring on his finger to indicate that he's married. And this isn't my fault. Why don't you round on your pretty little girlfriend for all of this. This is her fault to begin with. Had she stayed right where her mother told her to, we wouldn't be in this situation right now. Don't start with me, Dean," I snapped, my eyes narrowing into dangerous slits as I stepped toward him. I wasn't afraid of him and he knew that I would go toe-to-toe with him.

"Ok. I think that's enough. We don't need either of you two fucking dead," Athena said as she and Sam came between us, pushing us away from one another before we could do something stupid.

"I'll flip you for the sofa," Jo said, causing me to turn to her with a glare.

"Does your mother even know you're here? Or did you run off because you decided that bartending wasn't good enough for you?" I asked.

"Artemis," Dean growled as he stepped toward me again, only to be pushed back by Sam.

"Said I was going to Vegas," Jo said as if it was no big deal.

"Yeah, like she's going to buy that," I snapped.

"I'm not an idiot. I got Ash to lay a credit-card trail straight to the casinos," she said, causing me to scoff and shake my head.

"You're a bloody idiot. Your mother is not going to bloody believe that, Jo. She's been around hunters long enough to tell the difference between a lie and the truth. She's going to call up Dean or Sam any minute and ask if they've seen you and I'm hoping that they'll give you up because you don't need to be here. You need to go back to the bloody fucking Roadhouse," I snapped as I stepped toward her.

"Artemis, that's enough," Dean said as he placed himself in front of Jo to keep me from getting to her at any moment.

"Well isn't this sweet. Knew you couldn't resist, Dean. I don't want her here. Get rid of her," I said as I gave him a cold hard glare before going to sit down next to Sam, who had sat down with his laptop once he knew that I wasn't going to attack Dean.

"This is my case. I'm not going anywhere," Jo said as she gave me a look.

"Jo, you really don't want to get on the wrong side of me so don't try this bullshit "I'm all brave and I can take on this chick if things get rough." I will put your sorry ass six feet under and think nothing of it. This isn't a bloody fucking game and I don't trust you. I wouldn't trust you if you were the last bloody person on this earth," I said.

"Whatever. You're all talk. That's it. You're nothing but talk. I'm not going anywhere and there's nothing you can do about it," she said as she crossed her arms. That's it. My blood was boiling and she was pushing it over the top. I made to get up, but Sam grabbed a hold of my arm and held me down to the chair. He knew I was about to kill this blonde bitch.

"Jo, I'd appreciate it if you kept your snarky attitude to yourself when it comes to Artemis. I would rather tell your mother that you got yourself killed by something supernatural than a 5 foot blonde with an attitude and a thirst to kill anything that gets snarky and bitchy with her. I don't think your mother would appreciate it if we let Artemis off her leash at you. She's about ready to tear you to shreds if you don't keep your mouth shut," Athena said as she placed her hands on my shoulders, trying to keep me in my seat despite Sam's strong grip. At this point I think it would take all three of them to keep me off her if she kept going.

"Whatever. Like it or not, I'm here and I'm staying here. So untwist the boxers and underwear you all are wearing and deal with it," she said as she gave me a look of triumph. I scowled but stayed put, trying to bring my blood pressure back down. I was no good on this hunt being in the hospital.

"Where'd you get all that money anyways?" Sam asked as he changed the subject to avoid any other conflict.

"Working at the Roadhouse," she replied, causing Dean to scoff.

"Hunters don't tip that well," he said.

"Well, they aren't that good at poker either," she said with a slight chuckle as Dean's phone started to ring.

"Come on. Let's take a look at some of this information. See if we can't dig up something that Jo might have missed," Athena, gesturing for Sam to give her his laptop as she pulled the folder of information toward her. I gave a growl at how she was trying to avoid confrontation with Jo the best she could, but a look form Sam had me sighing and pulling out my own laptop to start working.

"Oh hi, Ellen." I looked up from going through my bag to give Dean a look as talked on his cell phone. Great. Now maybe Jo will get off this case and get the hell out of our way so we could do our job. I watched with a smirk as Dean and Jo started hissing at one another, knowing full well that Dean didn't want to be on the wrath side of Ellen if he lied to her. Bye-bye Jo.

"Haven't seen her." I nearly dropped my laptop in shock. You had to be bloody kidding me, right? Did he just lie to Ellen?

"Yeah, I'm sure. Absolutely," he said before he hung up the phone, causing Jo to give a cheeky grin before looking at me with a smirk of triumph. I growled but stayed seated. Her time would come and it wouldn't be pretty.

"So this place was built in 1924. It was originally a warehouse converted into apartments a few months ago," she said as blueprints of the building somehow magically appeared on the table and Jo took a seat across from me. I gave her a glare but kept quiet as I began to do what I had to on my laptop.

"What was here before 1924?" Dean asked.

"Nothing. Empty field," she replied.

"So most likely scenario, someone died bloody in the building and now he's back and raising hell," Sam said.

"So we're going to have to check out any fires or violent deaths that occurred in the last 82 years and then check to see where the body was buried. If the body was even discovered and buried that is," I said with a nod.

"Already checked. In the past 82 years, zero violent deaths. Unless you count a janitor who slipped on a wet floor. Would you sit down, please?" she asked, causing Dean to stop pacing behind her and give her a look before shaking his head and taking a seat next to her.

"Whipped," I coughed, causing him to give me a dirty look before looking back at Jo.

"So have you checked police reports or county death records?" he asked.

"Obituaries, mortuary reports and seven other sources. I know what I'm doing," she replied, causing me to roll my eyes with a scoff.

"I think the jury, or at least in their case, is still out on that one," I said, causing her to look at me as she twirled a knife in her hand.

"Could you put the knife down, Jo? I really don't want to have it impaled into my head," Athena said, causing Jo to give her a look for about a second before slamming it into the table with a raised eyebrow that screamed "happy now?"

"Okay, so, uh…it's something else then. Maybe some cursed object that brought a spirit with it," Sam said as he cut in.

"We got to scan the whole building then. Everywhere we can get to, right?" Jo asked.

"Right. So you and me will take the top two floors. Sam and Artemis will take the rest while Athena stays here and checks what she can from what we have and what we might be missing. This spirit only seems to have a thing for blondes, as you so put it, so she'll be alright by herself," Dean said as he began to stand.

"We'd move faster if we split up," Jo said as she too stood up.

"Well, this isn't negotiable," he said, causing me to roll my eyes as I stood up and grabbed my jacket.

"Come on, Sam. I'm getting sick just watching this exchange," I said as I headed out into the hallway to wait on Sam. A few minutes later he came out the door and we were on our way down to the first floor so that we could work our way back up.

"Want to tell me what's up?" he asked as he pulled out his EMF.

"Well, the sky is blue today but it looks like it might rain, apparently we're together and have a son, which is rather ironic because you've got this nice shiny ring on your ring indicating that you're married, my blood pressure is sitting on the edge of exploding because Dean is a bloody fucking jerk, we're safe for another day because that bastard demon has not visited me yet, and I'm about ready to beat the living hell out of Jo. Oh. And we're nowhere near trying to find Kiki. Sound about right to you?" I asked, sarcasm heavily lacing my words.

"I will never know how females are able to feel all these feelings at once," he replied, shaking his head.

"It's a gift," I said with a shrug.

"Artemis, obviously Jo is not going anywhere and…"

"She will be if you will just let me throw her out the window or something," I said, causing him to sigh.

"Artemis, I can't help that Jo is here. Obviously she's got a mind of her own and obviously she's not backing down from you or Dean. She's determined to see this case through, so you're going to have to find someway to make it work," he said, causing me to give a dry chuckle.

"No, I don't. I'm actually hoping that she'll be all by herself and this spirit will snatch her up. This way I don't have to deal with her and her obvious attempts to flirt horribly with Dean. She's got no class," I said, causing him to and turn to look at me.

"Artemis, are you jealous?" he asked, causing me to scoff.

"Jealous? Of what? Jo thinking she can have it? Dean just going along with it? Why the hell should I care? The bloody bastard and I weren't even officially together and we've been apart for over a year, Sam. What the hell would I have to be jealous about?" I asked, causing him to roll his eyes.

"Sometimes I just don't get you. Artemis, you are still head over heels in love with Dean and it's so obvious. Why else would you be targeting Jo and starting shit with Dean?" he asked.

"Because I don't like Jo and I don't trust her. She should not be here and I refuse to save her when she gets her skinny little blonde ass in trouble. And Dean deserves everything that's coming to him, whether he asked for it or not," I replied, causing him to sigh.

"When are you just going to admit it, Artemis? Admit that you still have feelings for Dean. Still love him. You wouldn't be that upset about Jo if it weren't for the fact that she is trying to get Dean all for herself, a fact that you subconsciously won't allow. You won't allow anyone to have your man. You're just too fucking stubborn, like always, to admit it," he said.

"You done?" I asked.

"Not even close. Everything that's happened to you since Dean left you in the hospital is starting to finally overflow from this wall that you've started to build up again. And I mean everything. The love of your life walks out on you, you discover that you've got demonic blood flowing through your veins that you didn't ask for, you've got the yellow-eyed demon coming to you in nightmares or dreams, which ever you want to call them, you're best friend is still missing and there have been no leads whatsoever to her whereabouts even though you've been in contact with yellow eyes, you've discovered that even though you're not a special child, you've got powers just like the rest of us because of your blood, and now some bitchy blonde bartender from a hunter's bar is trying to steal the one thing that matters the most to you deep down inside besides me. The one person that you risked your own life to save. The person who stills loves you no matter what he says or how many girls he takes home from a bar after drinking too much. Artemis, you're killing yourself again by keeping everything in instead of letting Dean and I help. Especially me. You were always able to tell me things and it seems like you're building this wall again to keep me out. I just want to help," he said, causing me to sigh as I shook my head.

"You can't help, Sam. I don't even know what's going on. I know as much as you do, so you can lay off. As for Dean, the bloody bastard wouldn't know love if it hit him in the ass. What we had was nothing but lust and I'm not allowing myself to get dragged back into the past. So just let it go," I said before I walked past him toward the main stair case as the first floor checked out clean. I could hear sigh in frustration behind me but nonetheless follow me. As we walked along the second floor, Sam's cell phone rang, causing him to hand me the EMF while he answered it.

"Are you sure?" I looked up from the EMF meter to give Sam a look and I could tell that he was on the phone with Dean.

"Alright. We'll meet you back in the room to discuss it. That was Dean," he said as he hung up his cell phone and looked at me.

"And?" I asked.

"They found skin or something in one of the vents on one of the floors. I think the floor with the apartment we're staying in. It had blonde hair attached to it. I'm guessing it's one of the victims that have disappeared in the last couple of months because the hair still looks fresh," he replied as we started to head back up toward the apartment.

"You sure it wasn't Jo's?" I asked, sarcastically.

"Artemis, just cut it out. We really need to figure this case out and you attacking Jo every chance you got is not going to help. Please try to work with her just for this little bit of time. Alright?" he asked, causing me to roll my eyes as I pushed past him.

"Whatever," I said as I headed up the stairs toward the apartment. He could think whatever he wanted, but nothing was going to change about Jo. Or Dean for that matter. This was turning into just one big nightmare for me that I couldn't wake up out of. I was so doomed before it was over.

* * *

**Dean's POV**

"Nice outfit, Art. When did you buy that? It's cute."

"A day or so before we went searching for Andy Gallagher. I thought it looked cute."

"And I think it's ridiculous. I mean, you're a hunter and you're in a skirt. It looks more whorish to me."

"Shut it, blondie." I let out a groan as I turned from my uncomfortable position in the chair that I fell asleep in last night to see Jo sitting in at the table and Artemis and Athena sitting on the couch working with the laptops.

"Morning, princess," Jo said with a chuckle.

"Where's Sam?" I asked as I noticed that my brother was nowhere to be found.

"Out getting coffee," she replied, causing me to nod as I sat up, groaning as I felt my back pop from the uncomfortable position I had been in.

"How'd you sleep on that big, soft bed?" I asked as I felt another pop in my spine.

"I didn't. Just been going over everything," she replied as she twirled that damn knife she had on her.

"Yeah. She's trying to impress you, Dean, with all her knowledge. If you ask me, it might be a excellent way to get you into bed. I mean, you do take mostly dumb blondes to bed so to speak," Artemis said, causing me to turn around and give her a dirty look. She merely smirked and stretched her legs as she went back to her researching, something that did not go unnoticed by me at all. She was wearing a short, bright blue, flared out skirt with a white corset top, white converses, and her hair pulled back with what looked like light blue butterfly clips in her hair. She looked pretty cute.

"Wait. What? Oh god. I'm not going there," I thought as I turned my attention away from her and lifted up one of our duffle bags full of weapons onto the table. Zipping it open, I pulled out one of the many knives I used during our hunts and unsheathed it before holding it out to Jo.

"What's this for?" she asked as she eyed it.

"It'll work a hell of a lot better than that little pig-sticker you're twirling around," I said as she took it, looking at it for a second before handing me her knife. Taking a look at what was so fascinating about such a little thing, I noticed some writing on the blade.

"William Anthony Harvelle," she said, causing me to frown immediately when I realized who she was talking about.

"I'm sorry. My mistake," I said as I handed her the knife back and she handed me mine. I wasn't about to argue with her about the knife since it meant so much too her. Besides, I had enough on my hands dealing with Artemis when she was in a bitchy mood. I didn't need a second while we were on this case.

"What do you…What do you remember about your dad? I mean, what's the first thing that pops into your head?" she asked, causing both Artemis and Athena to stop what they were doing to look over at us. I didn't blame them. It wasn't very often that my dad was talked about, both girls, especially Artemis, knowing it was still a sensitive subject with me after all this time.

"Come on. Tell me," she said, causing Artemis to snort with laughter as she got up and dumped her glass into the sink before turning around to face her.

"If you knew anything about Dean, Jo, you'd know that this is a sensitive area we don't talk about unless Dean wants to talk about it. So I'd advise you to stop asking," she said, causing Jo to roll her eyes before looking back up at me. Looking to Artemis, I sighed as I found myself giving in as I looked to Jo.

"I was 6 or 7 and uh…he took me shooting for the first time. You know, bottles on the fence kind of thing. I bull's-eyed every one of those suckers. He gave me this smile, like…I don't know," I said as I kind of trailed off. I could sense Artemis staring at me, causing me to look up and slightly frown at the look on her face. It was emotionless as normal, but her eyes gave away so much. Hurt, anger, jealousy. It almost made me feel guilty. I think. But just as soon as it was there, it was gone as she got herself more water and headed back to the couch to resume her research.

"He must have been proud," Jo said as she brought me back into the conversation at hand.

"Heh. What about your dad?" I asked, causing her to sigh slightly.

"I was still in pigtails when my dad died, but I remember him coming home from a hunt. He'd burst through that door like Steve McQueen or something. And he'd sweep me up into his arms and I'd breathe in that old leather jacket of his. My mom, who was sour and pissed from the minute he left, would start smiling again. And we were…we were a family," she replied with a slight smile on her face. I knew how she felt. How dad and Sam always seemed to be like family no matter the situation. How the girls not being there was like a piece missing in the puzzle. I knew how she felt.

"You want to know why I want to do this job? For him. It's my way of being close to him. Now tell me. What's wrong with that?" she asked.

"Beside having no experience in the reality of it all? Nothing," Artemis replied, sarcasm dripping off of every word as she looked over the couch at us with a glint of malice in her eyes.

"Ignore her. There's absolutely nothing wrong with it," I said as I gave Artemis a glare at her insensitivity to the subject before looking back at Jo. She gave me a small smile and made to say something when the door opened and Sam walked in, empty handed.

"Where's the coffee?" I asked.

"There are cops outside. Another girl disappeared," he replied, causing everyone to stop what they were doing and look at him.

"Are you sure?" Athena asked as she and Artemis got off the couch and walked toward us.

"Yeah," he replied with a nod.

"Alright. I'm going to go check it out. Athena, you come with me. Sam, you, Jo, and Artemis start looking into whatever we have now and whatever you can find before somebody else goes missing again," I said as I grabbed my jacket and motioned for Athena to follow me. It was starting to become crunch time on finding this severely pissed off spirit because both Jo and Artemis, although hers was a dirty blonde, were both targets and I was not about to let either one of them get taken. I knew Ellen would kill me if she found out her daughter got hurt and Artemis, although I wouldn't admit it out loud, I was worried about. I wasn't about to lose her like that. Ever.

* * *

**Artemis' POV**

"This just doesn't make any sense! There's nothing here and it's really starting to bloody piss me off. All we've got so far is that blondes are this spirit's favorite target and that there has been nothing since 1924 involving violent deaths or fires or whatever. It's absolutely ridiculous and I'm about ready to rip everything to shreds."

"Artemis, calm down. These piece together somehow. We just have to figure out how," Athena said, causing me to give her a dirty look before resuming my search through the piles of newspaper clippings and whatnot from Jo's folder as well as my own stuff that I had pulled up on my laptop.

"Theresa Ellis. Apartment 2-F. Her boyfriend reported her missing around dawn."

"And her apartment?" Jo asked as Dean shut the door and made his way toward us.

"Cracks all over the plaster, walls, and the ceiling. There was ectoplasm too," he replied.

"Which would just make the cops assume that it's some psycho killer or something that likes to be a sick bastard by making it look like an attack where he/she could have held the victim against the wall or whatever. Nothing out of the ordinary," Athena said, causing me to nod in agreement.

"Between that and the hair that you and Jo found in the vent, I'd say this sucker's coming from the walls," Sam said.

"Yeah, but who is it? Building's history is totally clean," Dean said.

"Maybe we're just looking in the wrong place," Jo said, causing me to give her a look as she looked at some of the pictures she had gotten of the old building that had existed before. Blondie definitely had a point. There had to be something that we were missing.

"What do you mean?" Dean asked.

"Check this out," she replied as she handed Sam the photo, who gave her a confused look.

"An empty field?" he asked as I peered over his shoulder to see that it had nothing but an empty lot surrounded by a couple of buildings. Where was this going?

"It's where this building was built. Take a look at the one next door. At the windows," she replied, causing me to peer to one side of the photo and raise an eyebrow at what I saw.

"Bars," Sam said.

"We're next door to a prison?" Dean asked as Athena took the photo from Sam's hands and studied it.

"I'm going to call Ash. See what he can dig up," Jo said as she fished out her cell phone.

"Don't. I've got an idea of this place. I knew this sounded familiar when I heard about those blonde women disappearing from this building over the past several years. Artemis, do you remember the stories that my grandfather use to tell us growing up about different parts of the world where the unnatural roamed and ordinary people could never explain it?" Athena asked as she sat down at the table and started working on my laptop.

"Yeah. He tried scaring us and it never worked. I always found those stories intriguing and fascinating," I replied with a nod.

"Remember how some stories were about specific parts of the United States, such as New York City or Miami?" she asked.

"Yeah. Where's this going?" I asked with slight confusion.

"Remember the stories that involved Pennsylvania?" she asked.

"There were a few. I'm still lost," I replied.

"Moyamensing Prison. It was built in 1835 and torn down in 1963. They use to execute people by hanging them in the empty field next door. My grandfather used to tell that story over and over to Artemis because she was fascinated by some of the people that they had executed while it was there. Sometimes I wonder if that's where she gets her sick, twisted mind from," she said as she gave her a look. I merely rolled my eyes and stuck my tongue out at her.

"Well, then we need a list of all the people executed there. Art, do you still remember some of the people that Athena's grandfather use to tell you about?" Sam asked as he looked at me.

"Not really. It's been a while since I heard some of those stories, but I could tap into the main frame of the county records and get it for you if you give me about five minutes," I replied as Athena and I traded places and I went to work.

"What other kinds of things did your grandfather use to tell you two about this lot?" Dean asked.

"Some of them were really gruesome executions but some of them just rotted in jail. It was kind of designed castle like in a way and was suppose to house about 400 inmates. Did you know that Edgar Allen Poe actually spent a night in the prison because he became so drunk that he began to hallucinate and tried to attempt suicide?" I asked.

"Huh?" he asked, causing me to roll my eyes.

"He's a poet. And never mind. I know Sam knows who he is. And here you go. A complete list of everyone who was executed between 1835 and 1963. It's all yours Sam's," I said as I moved to allow him to sift through it.

"You scare me with your knowledge already, but remind me never to leave anything of mine in your possession that involves hacking. It's even scarier," Dean said, causing me to roll my eyes and go toward the kitchen for a glass of water.

"There's like 157 names here, Artemis," Jo said, causing me to shrug.

"I never said that it was going to be a small list. You're just going to have to narrow it down some based on what we've got," I said.

"No kidding. We got to or we're going to be digging up a hell of a lot of stiffs, which I really don't want to do because time is starting to crunch," Dean said.

"Well, scroll down the list and see if you can find somebody's name that really stands out to you. It might give you a lead. Just because I know a lot of stories doesn't mean I remember every little detail about each and everyone of them," I said as I moved Dean out of the way and sat on top of the table next to the laptop as Sam worked. Dean gave me a glare, but I merely flipped him off and looked to Sam as a frown came across his face.

"What?" I asked.

"Herman Webster Mudgett? Wasn't that H. H. Holmes' real name?" Sam asked as he looked at all of us.

"You got to be kidding me," Dean said as he picked up my laptop and began to sift through it.

"Hey. I remember the story of Holmes. Your grandfather use to tell me about him all the time because I always found him really fascinating. Out of everything I ever learned about famous people, I have to say that he was probably the most intriguing one I loved to learn about. Your grandfather use to tell me all about his Castle and the murders he was charged of. He use to get so graphic with it because he thought it was scared me. To tell the truth, the more he told me, the more I got intrigued. I think maybe he was the one that really got me into the whole supernatural thing," I said.

"What do you remember out of everything that he told you?" Sam asked.

"Well, I don't know how true it is about the blondes always being the victim, but he had a thing for females. A lot of them were female employees working in the Castle, some were lovers of his, and some were even guests. The Castle was designed in such a way that they were oblivious to anyone until it was too late. There were various ways he tortured and killed his victims, but it was always the same. They were murdered. He was hung on May 7, 1896 and it took nearly 15 minutes for him to die because his neck didn't snap. Supposedly his body is buried in concrete because he didn't want to be dissected like he did with some of his victims. So I think we might have a hard time getting to his body. If we can find him," I replied.

"Well, I know that I can always count on one of you walking encyclopedias of weirdness. Artemis hit right on the money. Holmes was executed at Moyamensing on May 7th, 1896," Dean said as he looked up at us.

"H. H. Holmes himself. Come on. I mean, what are the odds?" Sam asked with a chuckle of disbelief.

"Who is this guy?" Jo asked as she looked at us in confusion.

"Basically he's America's first serial killer," Athena replied.

"The term "multi-murderer" is what they coined it to describe Holmes. Like Athena said, he was America's first serial killer before anybody knew what a serial killer was," Dean said.

"Along with what Artemis said, he confessed to 27 of the murders. Some think the death toll to be over a hundred," Sam added.

"And his victim flavor of choice? Pretty, petite blondes like you and Artemis. One of the methods he, uh, used to kill them was chloroform. Which, come to think about it, was what I smelled in the hallway last night when the EMF meter went off by the vent," Dean said.

"At his place, cops found human remains, bone fragments and long locks of bloody blonde hair. Gee, Jo. You really know how to bloody pick them," I said as I looked up from reading over Dean's shoulder to give Jo a look.

"Well, we just find the bones, salt them and burn them, right?" she asked, causing me to scoff and roll my eyes.

"Were you not listening to me earlier? This is not your typical spirit, so it's not that easy. His body is encased in a couple tons of concrete here in town to prevent anyone from mutilating his corpse like his victims. I swear you've got to be the dumbest blonde I have ever met and I'm almost entirely blonde myself," I replied, causing her to give me a dirty look.

"Artemis, play nice. Now is not the time. We've got a bigger problem than that," Sam said.

"What? How does this get bigger?" Jo asked.

"Well, like Artemis said, he built an apartment building. It was built in Chicago and it was called the Murder Castle. The whole place was a death factory. They had trap doors, acid vats, quicklime pits, etc. he built these secret chambers inside the walls. Like Artemis said, there were various ways that he would torture his victims. With the walls, he's lock his victims inside and keep them alive for days. Some he'd suffocate while others he'd let starve to death," Sam replied.

"So Theresa could still be alive. She could be inside these walls," she said.

"We need sledgehammers, crowbars, etc. We got to smash these walls anywhere thick enough to hide a girl. Artemis and Jo, you two are coming with me. Athena, you go with Sam. Don't give a damn to what the owner has to say. Anything thick, bust it in," Dean said as he got up. Grabbing what we needed to, Dean, Jo and I set out in one direction and Sam and Athena set out in another. Coming to a stop on the floor that we were on, Dean took a sledgehammer and just blasted the wall to pieces to reveal tunnel like spaces.

"I want both of you girls behind me. Art, do me a favor and stay behind Jo just incase," he said as he brought out his EMF and a flashlight to see ahead. I would have argued, but all I did was nod because I could tell what he was getting at. There was no way Jo could defend herself if the spirit decided to show himself behind us. At least I would have a better chance. Cocking my gun out of safety, I followed behind Dean and Jo as Dean led the way through the tunnel. As we rounded the corner, I heard a cell phone start to ring and I nearly groaned because it was a dead give away to where we were if someone other than Sam or Athena started to see something suspicious, or wanted to come after us, but I kept my mouth shut as I realized Sam was on the phone with Jo.

"Okay. Call us after you check the southeast wall. Sam and Athena are almost done with the first floor. They haven't found jack squat either," Jo said as I heard her snap her phone shut and stick it in her pocket.

"Well that doesn't do anything for us. Especially since we haven't found anything either," I said as I checked behind us again before continuing to follow. However, Dean stopped as we rounded the corner.

"What is it?" Jo asked as I tried to peer around her in hopes of seeing what the delay was. I just hoped it wasn't the dead body of the girl we were looking for.

"The wall has become narrower. I can't go any further," he replied.

"Let me see," she said as she started to push past him.

"What…What are you…Ugh…Should of cleaned the pipes. Ow!" Dean exclaimed as he looked over at me as I smacked him. I gave him a glare and watched as Jo slid onto the other side of him to examine the wall that was indeed too narrow for someone of Dean's size. It was more built for…

"I can fit in there," Jo said, finishing my thoughts for me.

"What? You're not going in there by yourself," he said as he shook his head.

"You got a better idea?" she asked defiantly.

"Yeah. Artemis. She's got a better chance of fighting back than you do. She's got more experience in that range," he replied, causing me to groan at the thought of him suggesting me. Although I was an excellent fighter against the supernatural, I hated being used as bait and since we were dealing with the ghost of America's first serial killer, I really didn't want to be bait.

"Too late," she said as she started to slip through the opening to the narrower path.

"Oh for the love of god. Artemis, do me another favor and follow her," Dean said, causing me to roll my eyes and move to slip past him. As I did so, I heard him hitch a breath and I didn't blame him. I was trying hard not to fight the sudden urges my body was telling me to go for. However, the sound of Jo moving further away from us made me tear my body away from his and snap on my own flashlight so that I could see better.

"Jo, get on your cell and talk to Dean. Keep on the phone with him since this is probably going to take us away from him big time. And don't argue with me about it. Just do it. It's a matter of life that's on our hands," I said as I moved myself so that my back was against hers and I kept my focus on the walls and behind us, ready to shoot at any moment.

"We're by the north wall. We're going to head down some kind of air duct," she said, causing me to break out of my thoughts and turn around to find Jo starting to make her way down what looked like a hole in the floor. Almost like a fire escape.

"No, no, no. What the bloody hell are you doing, Jo? We need to stay up here. We can't go down there alone," I said as I checked behind us once again before looking to her with a look of insanity. Even though I was a tough hunter and I could take on just about anything, something this serious I was not about to do by myself without Sam or Dean. There was no telling what could be waiting us below.

"Dean, Artemis, we got to find this girl, don't we? I'm okay. Dean, we're okay. We can do this," she said before hanging up and looking at me.

"You're crazy. We're both this spirit's type and you want to head down an air duct without Sam or Dean? Even I'm not that stupid," I said.

"Look. We need to put aside our differences right now and work together, Artemis. We're the only ones that can fit down here. We have to find this girl. She's depending on us. Dean is heading toward us so we should be ok. Besides, two is better than one, right?" she asked, trying to make a slight joke. Looking at her for a moment, I sighed and realized that she was right. Dean and Sam or no Dean and Sam, we had to find this girl. She was going to die without us and I had to admit that Jo was right. We were the only ones that could fit.

"Alright. But if we die, I will haunt your spirit even though I'm dead. God I wish I wore jeans," I said as I followed her down.

"You didn't expect that you would be climbing through walls," she said, causing me to nod in agreement.

"That's true," I said.

"Damn it," she said, causing me to turn and flash my light in her direction.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"I can't fit through here," she replied as she made to continue forward but couldn't move any further.

"See anything?" I asked.

"Just more wall and pathway too narrow for even us to fit through. Oh god," she replied, causing me to look at her in concern. I made to say something to her, but the sound of bubbling could be heard and my nose was immediately filled with a foul odor. Flashing my light against the wall, I saw black ectoplasm starting to fill through the cracks and I immediately started to back away, dragging Jo with me. He was here.

"Run," I said as I pushed her ahead of me and I started after her. However, I felt something snag on my leg and I let out a scream as I felt myself being dragged back toward the wall.

"Artemis!" I felt Jo grab onto me, but it didn't help as I felt my head hit something hard and Jo's screaming was the last thing I heard as darkness surrounded me.

* * *

**Dean's POV**

"Damn it. Artemis? Jo?" I let out a frustrated growl as I slammed the sledgehammer against the wall where Artemis and Jo were supposedly at and quickly pulled back the debris as I stuck my head inside to see. Seeing that it was too dark, I quickly turned on the flashlight and moved it all around the inside of the wall until it fell upon a cell phone and a gun. A gun I knew anywhere. And there was no sight of Artemis or Jo anywhere.

"Damn it!" I yelled as I slammed my hands against the wall before quickly taking off down the hallway. As I rounded the corner, I wasn't watching where I was going and slammed into Sam and nearly knocked over Athena in my hurry.

"Whoa," Sam said as he steady Athena and gave me a questionable look.

"He's got Artemis and Jo," I said.

"What? How'd that happen?" Athena asked as she gave me a horrified look.

"I wasn't with them. The space was too narrow and Jo went ahead with Artemis right behind her. I left them alone. Damn it!" I yelled as I started walking toward my destination I had been before I was stopped.

"Dean, we'll find them, alright?" Sam asked as he and Athena tried to keep up with me.

"Where?" I asked.

"Inside the walls," Athena replied, causing me to scoff at the idea.

"We've been inside the walls all night, Athena. None of the other girls are there. They won't be either," I said as Sam threw open the door to the apartment we were staying in and headed toward the table where our information was.

"Look. Let's just take a beat for a second and think about this. Maybe we got Holmes' m.o. wrong," Sam said as he bent over the information.

"I doubt that. Everything we dug up is pretty accurate, especially since a lot of it came out of Artemis' mouth. We're just missing something. Something that didn't stick out at first glance," Athena said as she helped him shuffle through the information.

"Well, we better fucking thing fast. Those girls probably don't have a lot of time. Hello?" I asked as I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket and answered it.

"You lied to me. She's there." I groaned slightly as Ellen's voice came through the other end. This was not good timing. Not good timing at all.

"Hey Ellen," I said.

"Ash told me everything. He's a genius, but he folds like a cheap suit. Now you put my damn daughter on the phone," she said.

"She's going to have to call you back. She's taking care of feminine business," I lied, hoping that it would buy us a little bit of time in hopes of finding both girls as quickly as possible.

"Cut the bullshit, Dean. Where is she? Where is she?" she demanded, causing me to sigh.

"Look, we'll get her back," I said.

"Get her back? Back from what?" she asked as I could hear the worry and concern and anger mixing itself up in her voice.

"The spirit that we're hunting. It took both her and Artemis," I replied.

"Oh my god," she whispered.

"She'll be okay. I promise," I said, causing her to scoff slightly.

"You promise? That is not the first time I've heard that from a Winchester," she said, causing me to frown.

"What?" I asked as confusion hit me full blast at what she said. What the hell was that suppose to mean?

"If anything happens to her…"

"It won't. I won't let it. Ellen, I'm sorry. I really am," I said.

"I'm taking the first flight out. I'll be there in a few hours," she said before I was met with dial tone.

"Damn it!" I yelled as I slammed my cell phone shut and stuck it into my pocket.

"Don't beat yourself up, Dean. There's nothing you could have done. We'll get them back," Athena said as she gave me a sympathetic look before returning her gaze to the blueprint laid out on the table before her and Sam.

"Please tell me you two got something," I said.

"Uh…maybe. Look. If you look at the layout of the Holmes' Murder Castle's, there's other torture chambers inside the walls, right? But there's one we haven't considered yet. The one in his basement," Sam said.

"This building doesn't have a basement though," I said as I gave him a look.

"You're right. It doesn't, but we just noticed this. Beneath the foundation, it looks like part of an old sewer system that hasn't been used…"

"Let's go," I said as I cut Athena off and headed for the door, both of them quickly following me.

"So what's the plan?" Sam asked.

"Find the entrance into the sewer and find our way to the girls. God knows what the hell Artemis is doing since she hates being locked up, especially in small, tight spaces," I replied, causing me to look at them as Sam to scoff and Athena to mutter under her breath.

"Glad to see you're concerned about Jo," he said with sarcasm.

"I am concerned about Jo. Her mother is on her way up here right now to kill me for lying to her and not sending her daughter back," I said.

"Oh really? Because although you're concerned about Jo, your mind just went to Artemis and nothing but Artemis," he said, causing me to roll my eyes. I knew where this was leading and we really didn't have time to get into this argument right now.

"You still have feelings for her, Dean. You're being protective of her. Even though you did throw her in to be bait just in case because Jo was being a stupid blonde, and you know that she can handle herself in any situation, you're still afraid of losing her. You still remember little things about her, such as how she's claustrophobic when she's in the tiniest of spaces or how she hates to be locked up. This isn't by choice, Dean. You're subconsciously reverting back to the protector," Sam said.

"We don't have time for this, Sam. We've got two girls who are going to die and you want to talk about Artemis and I? You have real impeccable timing, Sammy," I said as I shook my head.

"Dean…"

"That's enough, Sam! I don't want to talk about it anymore," I snapped as I gave him a glare that shut him up pretty good. Satisfied that neither of them would say anything else, I exited the building and headed toward the Impala. Although what Sam was trying to say at me nagged at me, I pushed it to the back of my mind as I opened the trunk of the Impala and started moving things around as I tried finding what I needed. This was not the time to do this at all. I would never forgive myself if something happened to those two girls, especially Artemis. I had to protect her. It was my job no matter what the situation was at hand. Wasn't it?

* * *

**Artemis' POV**

"Artemis? Artemis, can you hear me? Are you there? Artemis!" I let out a groan as Jo's annoying voice floated through my ears. What the bloody hell was she yelling about now? Letting my eyes flutter open, I groaned as my head throbbed in pain as I tried to get myself oriented with where I was. Trying to shift myself about, I felt something kind of slimy and bony next to me, causing me to pull out my flash light as I turned my head slightly and let out a scream as I came face to face with a decomposing skeleton that had to be there for at least a few weeks. Trying to back away, I found myself unable to as my back came against another wall, making me realize that I was in some kind of cage or something.

"Artemis?"

"Jo?" I asked as I recognized her voice again.

"Oh thank god. I thought maybe he killed you right away since you didn't answer me until now. Are you alright?" she asked.

"Except for the dead rotting corpse next to me, I'm doing just bloody peachy," I replied with a chuckle of dry humor as I looked out the thin slits of the side of the cage trying to distinguish where her voice was coming from.

"I found Theresa," she said.

"She alive?" I asked.

"Yeah. For now," she replied, causing me to sigh as I moved the flashlight around the cage in order to find out exactly what I was dealing with besides the rotting corpse. Maybe I could find a way out of the cage that no one else had thought of. Maybe.

"Just keep her calm, Jo. Try not to spook her anymore than she already is," I said as I ran a hand over the top where there was no doubt blood and what looked like fingernail scratching to indicate trying to claw their way out or something. I didn't blame them. If I was them, I would be trying anything to get out at this point, but I knew I had to remain calm. It would do me no good if I panicked.

"Oh god. He's here!" I stopped what I was doing at Theresa's cries and let my hand wander to the underside of my skirt, where there was an iron knife sheathed on the outside of my thigh.

"Shh! Just be quiet," Jo said as I flicked off my flashlight and let my eyesight readjust to the dark and try to listen for his approach. Breathing as lightly as I could without panicking that this famous spirit was now in the room with us, I lifted my head so that I could out the cage. Although I could see nothing at that particular second, I knew better than to think of the better. That would only get me killed.

"Jo, do you see anything?" I asked.

"No. But that doesn't mean…Ah!!!"

"Jo!" I yelled as her screams filled the room that we were in and bounced off the tiny space that I was in, giving chills down my spine. I banged my hands against the top of the cage and tried kicking at the door the best that I could, but it did nothing but hurt my hands and legs.

"Jo? Talk to me," I said as her sobs quieted down just slightly.

"My head hurts," she replied.

"What the hell did he do to you? Where is he?" I asked as I looked out the slit. However, I let out a scream as I felt my head bang against the door hard, his hands grasping at my hair as I tried to pull away. His grip was strong and I felt like I was going to pass out at the excruciating pain passing through my head. However, he let go as a bit of strands came lose and I let out a sob as I felt no more attacks to my head or body.

"Artemis? Talk to me, Artemis. Are you alright?" Another sob escaped as the pain racked through my body like I had just had a nightmare or shared one of Sam's visions.

"He take a chunk out of your head too?" she asked, causing me to let out a dry chuckle.

"When we get out of here, I'm so dying my hair red or brunette or blue. I don't give a bloody fuck what color just as long as it's not blonde. I won't stand for being kidnapped again by some psycho killing spirit," I replied, causing her to groan.

"No jokes. Please," she said, causing me to roll my eyes.

"How you doing Theresa?" I asked, checking to make that our other occupant was doing ok and not dead yet.

"I'm here," she replied, causing me to sigh in relief.

"Alright. Jo, you got any bright ideas on how to get the bloody fuck out of here? I'm fresh out," I said as I flipped the flashlight back on and looked once more around the cage. The only answer I got was a bang, causing me to roll my eyes as I realized she was trying to kicked her way out of the cage.

"I've already tried that. You're just going to have sore hands and feet," I said.

"Well there has to be some way out of these things. These are as old as dirty so they have to have some kind of flaw in them," she said, causing me to sigh and shake my head even though she couldn't see it.

"Not a chance. Holmes may have been psychotic or whatever, but he wasn't stupid. These cages may be years and year old, but they'll hold. Even rusted as badly as they are. Banging them is only going to make us sore, so stop banging and kicking like it's just going to magically open," I said.

"So what do you propose? I don't have anymore ideas," she said, causing me to groan.

"This is just great. I'm going to kill Dean for even suggesting that…"

"So pretty." I bit back a scream as I felt a hand rub along my ankle.

"So beautiful."

"Oh god," I whimpered as I tried to move away from the hand, but the body next to me and the strong grip on my upper leg prevented me from going anywhere. And it didn't help that I was starting to really freak out between the small space, being held captive by America's first psycho serial killer, and the fact that he was starting to feel me up. I wish I had worn jeans today. I was not liking this at all.

"Artemis? Talk to me," Jo said as I whimpered, the hand starting to make its way up the rest of my body.

"I can't do this, Jo," I said, letting out a cry as he gripped my hair again and pulled. What the hell did I do to deserve this? This was all Jo's fault for getting me into this mess. Actually it was all Dean's fault for having me follow her because she was such a stubborn bitch. As I heard Jo screaming at me and Holmes continuing to pull at me, my stomach grazed against something metal and I used one of my hands to feel around until I came across whatever it was that I had felt against my stomach. Pulling it up, my eyes widened and I immediately impaled it against the arm holding my hair, causing the spirit to let out a scream and disappear. For the second time that day, I let out a sob as the knife I had forgotten I had slid out of my hand and clanked to the bottom once again.

"Artemis? Artemis, are you alright?" Jo asked as I heard banging coming from her cage.

"I can't do this, Jo. I can't do this. Oh god. Get me the bloody hell out of here!" I screamed as panic started to set in and I started to kick and hit at everything I could. I wanted out and I didn't care how.

"Artemis, you have to calm down. We're not…"

"I don't give a bloody fuck anymore, Jo! There's a rotting corpse in here with me and the walls are starting to close in and H. H. Holmes' ghost was feeling me up and…and…get me the bloody hell out of here! Please!" I screamed as I kicked at the door and pushed at the ceiling. As much as I tried to calm myself down, it did me no good because I could feel all of my fears starting to wrack through my body and it only made things worse as sobs escaped and the kicking and banging increased.

"Artemis, calm down! We don't know if he's still here. We…" But Jo never finished as she screamed and suddenly became silent, the heavy breathing of Holmes' spirit replacing it.

"Jo! Oh god! Somebody help! Please! Jo!" I yelled as I kicked and banged at the side of the cage with everything I got in hopes that it would bust open and I could get to Jo. Everything I had against Jo vanished in that moment because her life was in danger at this moment with whatever Holmes was doing to her and although I hated her with every fiber in my body and spoke like I wanted her gone, nobody deserved to go with the way he was taking his victims and trying to take us. Nobody deserved to die like this. Nobody. Not even Jo.

"Hey!" I let out a cry as a gun went off and the sound of a door crashing open sounded throughout the room.

"Jo? Artemis?"

"We're here!" Jo yelled, causing my heart to skip a beat as I realized that Sam, Dean, and Athena had actually found us before we were killed.

"Sam! Dean! Get me out of here! Please!" I screamed, beating against the side again as I began to feel the walls closing in on me. Although they were here to rescue us from the psycho spirit, it didn't mean anything and I seriously didn't want to stick around to find out what happened next.

"Hang on, princess. We're working on it as fast as we can. You got to stay calm," Dean said, his voice floating toward me as I heard the sound of metal being worked on to get Theresa and Jo out of their death coffins first.

"I can't. Get me the bloody hell out of here," I said with a sob as I kicked the side again.

"Artemis, you have to stay calm. He can't hurt you anymore," Sam said, causing me to laugh bitterly. They didn't have a clue to what I had just been through with the sickening spirit, causing me to shudder as I tried to get it the nightmare out of my head. However, the creaking of a door or something caused me to forget everything and resume my panic as he must of returned.

"Artemis, calm down. I need you to calm down now," Dean said as his eyes appeared through the slits of the cage and I let out a sob.

"I can't," I said as I shook my head.

"Artemis, listen to me. You got to calm down. He can't hurt you anymore. Sam's working on the lock right now. You got to calm down. I'm not going to let anything happen to you. You got to trust me," he said as I shook my head.

"Dean…"

"Trust me," he said, causing me to let out another sob before nodding. It seemed like forever, but I scrambled out as quickly as my battered body would let me the second the door was lifted and I flew at Dean. I didn't care about anything else at that moment except the place I felt the most safe and protected at. Dean. Sobs wracked my body as I buried myself into his chest, my fingers wrapping tightly around his jacket as his arms closed around me and I felt his fingers starting to run through my hair. The one thing I could remember that had always calmed me down.

**Dean's POV**

"Let's get the hell out of here before he comes back."

"I don't think you're leaving here just yet," Athena said as she started moving quickly around the room, securing everything she could get her hands on in order for our plan to work.

"What? Why?" she asked as she gave us a confused look.

"Remember when I said you being bait was a bad plan? Now it's kind of the only one we got," I replied.

"But…"

"Jo, you've got to do it. Artemis can't. She's too freaked and I don't think she's letting go of Dean anytime soon. Whatever Holmes did to her, she's not coming out of it anytime soon. You're the only option we've got," Sam said as he gave her a pleading look. He was right. The way Artemis was burying herself into me and her fingers digging into my jacket to get herself closer was no doubt telling me that I was not going anywhere. Somebody would have to kill her first to get her to let go of the grip she had on me.

"You have got to be kidding me. There's no way that…"

"We haven't got much time, Jo, and Artemis can't do it. You want to be a hunter so god damn bad, this is what you got to deal with. So fucking suck it up and do it. This was your god damn case anyways," Athena snapped, slamming hard into Jo's shoulder as she passed by with a glare. I raised an eyebrow and looked over toward Sam, who could only shrug. He was just as surprised as I was at the hardness in Athena's voice. I had only heard it a handful of times, mostly directed at Artemis in a big sister fashion, but this time I was shocked at the coldness in her voice. I don't think that she had ever used it on anyone. Not even Artemis.

"Alright. Sam, help Athena out with finishing out the plan and explain to Jo what the hell she has to do while I take care of Artemis. You got the other girl?" I asked as I looked to my brother. He gave me a nod, causing me to sigh as I moved toward the exit Sam and I had come through. Making to set Artemis down, I sighed as her grip tightened even more.

"Hey, hey, hey. You're alright. It's over," I said as I ran my fingers through her hair trying to keep her calm. Trying being the key word.

"I can't do this," she said, shaking her head.

"He can't hurt you anymore, Art. He can't hurt anyone else for that matter. Jo's going to be the bait, so you don't have to worry about that. I promise that everything will be ok," I said as she hiccupped.

"I can still feel his hands. I feel so bloody dirty," she said, causing me to sigh and push her back slightly so that I could take a look at her. Her hair was all over the place and her outfit and body were covered in dirt and grim. The only thing that really stood out from beneath all that was her icy eyes, which were red from her crying and were ready to tear up again. Looking down her body, I could see that her skirt was slightly torn and I frowned at the bruises starting to form on right leg where he must have had a hold on her. No wonder she was as freaked as she was. I didn't blame her.

"Is she alright?" I looked up as Athena appeared in the doorway.

"She'll be fine. Is everything set up?" I asked, causing her to nod as Sam appeared behind her with Theresa in his arms.

"We've got to get her out of here. Jo's all set and ready. We just got to wait for Holmes to show up to trap him," Sam said, causing me to nod and look back to Artemis.

"Hey. Listen to me. I need you to follow Athena back through the sewer tunnels with Theresa and get back up to ground," I said, causing her to frantically shake her head.

"Dean…"

"Artemis, you have to trust me. I promise nothing bad will happen to you, ok? I promise you that no more harm will come to you. But I need you to go above ground and take care of Theresa with Athena, ok? I need you to trust me," I said, causing her to give me a look before nodding. I could see the fear in her eyes. There was no doubt about it. Running my fingers through her hair once more, I nodded my head toward the left and she slowly gripped onto Theresa as they followed Athena back out the way that we came in. Sighing, I cocked the shotgun and turned toward the door where I could see Jo shaking slightly, waiting for Holmes to appear. I wish we had never taken this case and I couldn't wait for this hellish nightmare to be over. At least for now anyways.

* * *

**Artemis' POV**

"Artemis?"

"Come in." I looked up from the foamy white bubbles and let out a soft chuckle as Sam stopped dead in his tracks and lowered his head, his face starting to flush as he realized that I was still not out of the bath yet.

"Sam, I'm covered by all this foamy whiteness. There is nothing you can see. I would be kicking your bloody ass out of here if there was," I said, causing him to rub the back of his neck with a nervous chuckle as he shut the door and sat against the tub.

"You alright?" he asked.

"Besides the four times I drained the tub already? I'm ok," I replied with a shrug.

"I don't think I've ever seen you as freaked out as you were today," he said.

"Yeah, well you weren't being felt up by America's first serial killer. I can still feel his hands on me and I still feel so dirty even after scrubbing myself several times. I can still feel the cold metal of that cage and the smell of the rotting corpse next to me. I never let my fears show as much as they did today, Sam. Never. I never let myself panic like I did," I said as I wrapped my arms around my legs a little tighter and rested my chin upon my knees.

"You're human, Artemis. I always worry when you don't show any other emotions other than anger and sarcasm," he said.

"I felt safe," I said, causing him to turn his head slightly to give me a confused look.

"What?" he asked.

"For the first time in months, I felt safe today. Like I was where I was suppose to belong," I replied.

"You're talking about Dean," he said as he realized what I was trying to say.

"It just felt so right, Sam. I felt so at home in his arms. And no matter how bloody freaked out I was with this whole thing, his voice and his arms around me and his fingers through my hair calmed me down. Just like they always had. It was like it was so natural," I said.

"Your feelings for Dean are starting to break through that icy layer of yours," he said, causing me to give him a confused look this time.

"What?" I asked.

"You've always loved Dean, Artemis. You're just too stubborn to admit that you still have feelings for him. This whole thing with Jo flirting with Dean and this whole case in general is starting to make you think. Even if you don't want to admit it, your mind is still filtered on your love for Dean and it's going to continue to do it until you admit it to yourself truthfully and you admit it to Dean. And the same goes for Dean. I know my brother is still in love with you even if he won't admit it. He didn't hesitate with you today at all, Artemis. He didn't stop to think about the consequences or whatever of his actions. He stepped into the role of the protector and did everything he knew would calm you down. He still loves you, Artemis. You two are just too stubborn to admit it because of your pride," he replied, causing me to shake my head with a soft chuckle.

"I can see why Kiki loves you so much, Sam. You work hard to get to the end result no matter how difficult or stubborn a person or the situation is. You're a good friend, Sam, and I really wouldn't know what to do with myself if you weren't in my life. You keep me grounded and I can't thank you enough for everything," I said, causing him to give me a smile as he reached across the tub and kissed my temple before standing up.

"Ellen is almost here and I think I might need a little help keeping her off Dean if she decides to attack him," he said, causing me to chuckle and nod.

"I'll be out in a few minutes," I said, causing him to nod and shut the bathroom door behind him. Letting out a sigh, I hit the shower knob to rid myself of all the bubbles as they began to swirl to the drain before grabbing a towel and drying myself off. Dressing in a comfortable set of pajama bottoms and a tank top with Snoopy on them, I swept my hair up into a messy bun and exited the bathroom just as Ellen came storming in. I made to say something, but I thought better of it since I really wasn't in the mood to do any arguing and decided to just take my things out to the car.

"This is going to be an eventful ride back to the Roadhouse," Athena said as she tossed her duffle bag into the trunk of the Impala after me.

"I think I might sleep. I deserve it after today," I said, causing her to nod.

"Yeah. Even though I do want to kick Jo in the head for it," she said, causing me to chuckle.

"Remind me to castrate Dean if he ever takes a case from Jo again. I don't need anymore psycho spirits feeling me up," I said with a shudder, causing her to sigh as she shut the trunk and looked at me.

"Yeah, well Dean and Sam will probably be in a foul mood once we get back out on the road from the Roadhouse," she said, causing me to raise an eyebrow in confusion.

"Why?" I asked.

"Because I have a feeling that Ellen might be so upset that she'll accidentally say something to Jo about the way her father died," she replied.

"What's that got to do with the price of bloody lemons?" I asked.

"I, uh…happen to come down one night while we staying at the Roadhouse for a glass of water and found Ellen sitting at the bar in the dark with a beer in her hands. She was looking through some things and I kind of startled her. So we got to talking a little bit and she asked me why I was so trusting of the Winchesters. I mean, she knew that you worked with the Winchesters before and that Kiki was married to, or at the time she met Kiki they were engaged, but she asked me why I was so trusting of the Winchesters. I kind of questioned her about why she was asking me and I guess she was worried about Jo maybe wanting to be a hunter like her father and told me about her husband. About how he died," she replied.

"Ok. Still not following. What does that have to do with us or the Winchesters?" I asked.

"Artemis, William Harvelle died on a hunt where he was partnered with John Winchester, Dean and Sam's dad," she replied.

"What? You've got to be kidding me. As far as I knew, especially since I met the man, he did his hunting alone unless it was with Dean or something. I remember him being very reluctant to have me or Kiki or even Sam and Dean hunting the yellow eyed demon back when he was alive," I said as I gave her a look of disbelief.

"Well, turned out that on this particular hunt, they partnered together and somehow John got William killed. Don't really know much more than that. All I do know is that Dean and Sam are in for a rude awakening when they find out. If Ellen tells them or Jo tells them or whatever. I just don't understand why she told me. Maybe she was drunk," she said, causing me to let out a snort of laughter.

"I've only known Ellen a few days between certain cases and I've got to tell you that the day Ellen ever becomes drunk is the day I find that rotten yellow-eyed bastard and kill him," I said.

"Your parents would be proud of you," she said, causing me to give her a look.

"What are you talking about? The last I checked, allowing a demon to penetrate my mind and having demon blood was not part of the description. Hell, my parents would be ringing me around the neck right now if they knew what I was doing. Especially with my mother's past," I said.

"Art, that can't be helped, but it doesn't define you. Being part demon doesn't define who you are. If we didn't trust you, we would have already killed you. I would have killed you the second I got you alone in that crib," she said, causing me to look at her.

"What?" I asked.

"Artemis, I knew you were part demon. I knew of your mother's past. Hell, she trusted my parents with that secret when they met and discovered that my parents were hunters. Now you knew our parents worked together before your parents gave up to raise you and Bryce, but my family knew everything about your mother. Why do you think I go to great lengths to protect you? Because I knew. I've known since the day you were conceived that you were going to be something I hunted one day. I know that you're confused on your past and everything seems to not make sense, but it will. Eventually the pieces will all come together. Your parents would be proud of you right now for what you're doing. For not allowing their past to define you. For allowing yourself to break through this icy layer you try to build around yourself to keep others out. For allowing yourself to show emotions. Just remember that I'm always here. I'm always going to be here whether you and Dean make up, get married and have lots of kids or if you grow old by yourself. I've been here since day one and I'm going to be here until my very last breath. You're not alone," she said, causing me to give her a look before shaking my head.

"Sometimes I wonder if you and Sam might be from the same planet because you're both exactly alike and I wouldn't know what to do without either of you," I said as I gave her a hug.

"It's been said that we could possibly be genetically made the same," she said with a laugh as Dean and Sam came from the motel room and threw their stuff into the trunk before Dean got behind the wheel without saying a word.

"I think I'll sit between him and Ellen on the way back. You're too big and Artemis is too tired to even fight back. This will be fun," she said, shaking her head as she got into the front just as Ellen and Jo came out of the motel.

"Yeah. Fun," I said with sarcasm as Sam shook his head and pushed me into the back seat before getting in next to me. Grabbing my iPod from my shoulder bag, I put the ear pieces into my ears and leaned into Sam, sleep starting to work its way through my tired body. As I flipped through my songs, I felt a pair of eyes watching me, causing me to look up and lock eyes with Dean as he looked at me through the rearview mirror. I could see so much running through them that I didn't even know where to begin to process it all and for some reason it really was bothering me. Sighing, I shifted further into Sam's warmth and hit play on my iPod.

_I never felt nothing in the world like this before  
__Now I'm missing you and I'm wishing you would come back  
__Through my door  
__Why did you have to go?  
__You could have let me know; so now I'm alone_

_You could have stayed but you wouldn't give me a chance  
__With you not around it's a little bit more than I can stand  
__And all my tears they keep runnin' down my face  
__Why did you turn away?_

_So why does your pride make you run and hide  
__Are you that afraid of me?  
__But I know it's a lie what you keep inside  
__This is not how you want it to be_

_*Chorus*  
__So baby I will wait for you  
__Cause I don't know what else I can do  
__Don't tell me I ran out of time  
__If it takes the rest of my life_

_Baby I will wait for you  
__If you think I'm fine it just ain't true  
__I really need you in my life  
__No matter what I have to do  
__I'll wait for you_

(Elliot Yamin "Wait For You")

Sam couldn't be right. Could he? Was I still in love with Dean Winchester?


	6. The Usual Suspects

**Breath of Life**

**Disclaimer****:** I do not own any of the Supernatural characters as they are the property of the Eric Kripke and the CW. I do, however, own Artemis, Kiki, Athena, and any other characters introduced within the story as they are sole property of my mind.

**Summary****: **Zombies, ghosts, demons, and all other supernatural she could handle. The disappearance of her best friend and the confused feelings for Dean she wasn't sure she could handle. Drawn back into hunting after nearly a year, 24 year old Artemis Flora Summers sets out once again with the Winchester boys and her old friend, Athena, to figure out who is behind the kidnapping of Kiki and why they want her. However, things begin to take unexpected turns when Artemis finds herself facing more of her past as her connection to Sam becomes more apparent and strong. What happens when she realizes that she's destined to follow in the footsteps of her ancestors? Can she shed those icy layers again to allow Sam and Dean, especially Dean, back in? Or has she finally met her end?

* * *

**Author's Note****:** Thank you to all who have read and reviewed the story thus far. I'm really glad that you all are enjoying it. Just a little note before you start reading: This chapter will contain point of views from not only from Artemis and Dean but Sam as well since Sam and Dean are split up in this episode. Enjoy!

* * *

**The Usual Suspects**

"I hate you."

"That's not what you said last night."

"Fuck you. This is not the time for bloody jokes. How are we going to get out of this one, smart ass?"

"Why am I the one to come up with the escape plan, huh? Why can't you be the brains behind the ideas for once? Are you really that dependent upon me to make your decisions for you? Are you actually wanting to submit to me?"

"Once again, fuck you. And this is your bloody fault anyways, Dean. You're the one that got us into this mess. And when I get out of these, I'm going to bash you so hard on the bloody fucking head that you're going to wish you hadn't gotten us caught in the first place," I snapped as I slammed my hands on the table we were sitting at, wincing as the metal cuffs around my wrists made a slight mark at my tugging. Dean let out a snort of laughter, causing me to send him a glare as he smirked.

"I'm going to kill you when we get the bloody hell out of here," I said.

"I wouldn't be too sure of that, Miss Summers. Unless you want to add on murder in the first degree to your record that is." I glared at the man walking into the room, but kept my mouth shut so that I didn't get myself into anymore trouble than I already was in.

"Well, at first I thought you were just stepping up your game. Credit card fraud, breaking and entering, etc. Now, this one puzzled me. Grave desecration," he said as he held up a sheet of paper that had some writing on it, causing me to roll my eyes.

"Yeah. Like we can see what the bloody hell is on that paper. Maybe you could go blow it a little bit larger so that way we can bloody see what's on it as you hold it away from us," I said, deciding that keeping my mouth shut was not going to last even if I tried.

"Miss Summers, I suggest you keep your sarcasm to yourself," he said as he gave me a hardened look, which I merely stared back at him with a hardened look of my own. I wasn't scared of Dean and I sure wasn't scared of an officer with a gun.

"Oh you'll what? Sentence me to jail for my screwed up records? Oh wait. My records are clean. You don't have bloody shit to go on about me, Detective Sheridan," I snapped, causing Dean to kick me in the leg underneath the table to keep my mouth shut. I merely flipped him off and turned my attention back to the Detective. He couldn't hold me here for anything but what Dean and I had been arrested for earlier because my record, despite my lifestyle, was clean as a whistle. No a scratch to be found.

"Miss Summers, I can have you arrest for your attitude and disrespect toward an officer of the law if you do not keep your mouth shut and the sarcasm locked away. All these charges I have against your boyfriend will no doubt be found somewhere on your record once we pull it up. There's always a spot on somebody's record and this just proves it. All these charges are a long way from murder. But then we get a fax from St. Louis, in which you're suspected of torturing and murdering a young woman," he said, causing me to look at Dean as the detective spoke the last part toward him. I was thoroughly confused at that. Dean was suspected of murder? In St. Louis? That didn't make any sense whatsoever.

"However, no one could prove anything, of course because, supposedly, you died there," Sheridan said, causing me to scoff and place my head on the table with a bitter laugh as I realized what the hell he was talking about now. I remembered Dean talking about himself as being the black sheep of the family when the nice lady officer questioned us about St. Louis when Sam and Kiki got kidnapped by those crazy people hunting yahoos. Now it made a lot more sense of what Sheridan was talking about.

"But I got to tell you something. You look pretty healthy to me," he said.

"Shut up, Artemis," Dean said, glaring at me as I made to make a retort. I made to say something to him as well, but I thought better of it and settled for flipping him off as I leaned back in my seat as far as the cuffs would comfortably allow me.

"Well, at least we now know that Karen Giles wasn't the first person you murdered. And I can guarantee you and your mouthy little partner over here that she's the last," Sheridan said, giving us a smirk before walking out of the room. The second the door shut behind him, I kicked Dean as hard as I could underneath the table, causing him to swear and look at me with a glare as the cuffs kept him from retaliating.

"What the hell was that for?" he asked.

"Murder? There's no way in bloody hell we're getting out of this one, Dean. What else are they going to pull up on you that's going to get us in deeper trouble than we already are?" I asked.

"Well I don't know, Artemis. Want to tell me what they're going to pull up in your record since they found you as well at the scene of the crime and you're obviously associated with me in one way or another?" he asked, causing me to scoff.

"I can not believe you. You know damn well that they're not going to find anything on my record. Me being with you and Sam or not. There is nothing there. No credit card frauds, no identity theft, etc. Including no murder. It's clean as a whistle, Dean. Coming from a wealthy family has it's perks to not have to do some of the things you've been doing your entire life," I replied, causing him to roll his eyes.

"Of course. You could wipe your records clean if you wanted to," he said, causing me to scoff.

"Dean, even if I had a smudge on my bloody record, no amount of money could wipe it clean. I mean, yeah if I bribed every cop I met it might happen, but I wouldn't want to waste my money on something so petty. Besides, I need a cute new skirt when we get out of here. And I think maybe some new converses. My black ones are pretty banged up," I said, causing him to shake his head as he leaned back in his chair.

"I don't think I'll ever understand you," he said.

"Yeah, well you've got plenty of time to think about it later when we get out of here. If we get out of here. Dean, this is really, really bad. First Athena tells us that the FBI are looking to question her about our whereabouts and then we get caught by the police at the crime scene of a murder victim? Dean, there's no doubt that the FBI are going to come here if they call them. Especially since you're wanted for murder anyways in St. Louis. We have to get out of here before they book us and we can't escape," I said.

"I know, I know. You don't need to tell me twice. Look, when the "nice" detective comes back in, play nice. He already thinks he's got us for murder, so don't give him anything else to arrest you for," he said, causing me to scoff.

"You should take your own advice since I know you won't be able to keep your mouth shut either when the time comes to it. Plus, how the bloody hell do we know if Sam and Athena are alright? We haven't exactly been able to get up to call them," I said.

"I'm sure they're fine. In the meantime, keep your mouth shut and think of something," he said, causing me to roll my eyes and put my head down on the table with a groan. I couldn't believe this. I was stuck in an interrogation room with Dean for something we didn't do but where at the wrong place at the wrong time. And to top it all off, we didn't know a thing about Sam or Athena and what was going on with them. I just hoped that they hadn't gotten caught or were getting into too much trouble. Knowing these bloody bastards of cops, they were probably sitting in a jail cell because of Dean and I. More so Dean than me. Oh bloody hell.

* * *

**Sam's POV**

"This is just great. We've been arrested by the Baltimore police on charges that we don't know about yet, Dean and Artemis are probably wondering where we're at, and come to think about it, Dean and Artemis are probably trying to kill one another because the two of us are not there. How the hell are we suppose to get out of this one, Sam?"

"You've got me. We'll think of something. We've been in tougher situations before," I replied as I turned my gaze from the window to the female sitting at the table drumming her fingers.

"Yeah, but sitting in a police station like this? Out of all my years as a hunter, I've never been caught like this. I swear that if Dean had something to do with this, I'm going to kill him when I see him. If we get out of here," she said, causing me to chuckle and shake my head.

"Now you're sounding like you're Artemis. I sometimes wonder if you two switch personalities at moments like this," I said, causing her to roll her eyes and flip me off, in which I merely gave her a grin.

"I see you two get along better than the other two." I turned my gaze toward the door as a female cop, or what looked like a detective to be more accurate, shut the door and set two styrofoam cups of coffee on the table

"I thought you two might be thirsty," she said, causing Athena to scoff.

"So we've got the good cop first. Where's the bad cop?" Athena asked.

"With Sam's brother and his girlfriend. I'm Detective Ballard," she replied.

"Better not let either of them hear you say that," Athena muttered, causing to give her a look, to which she merely rolled her eyes, before I turned my attention back to the detective.

"Okay. And you're holding us why?" I asked.

"Well, they're being held on suspicion of murder and you two? We'll see," she replied.

"Murder?" I asked.

"You have got to be kidding me," Athena added as the two of us shared a surprised look. Dean and Artemis got caught while checking out a lead? That had to be impossible. They were usually pretty careful with stuff like this, especially Artemis. If I could remember correctly, her record was spotless. Not a hair or fingerprint to link her back to anything despite the type of lifestyle we were all living. There had to be a mistake.

"You both sound genuinely surprised. Or are you that good of actors?" she asked.

"Who are they supposed to have murdered?" I asked.

"We'll get around to that," she replied, causing me to scoff.

"Well you can't just hold us here without formal charges," I said.

"Well, actually, we can for 48 hours. But you, being a pre-law student and all, would know that. Or well, former pre-law student. I know all about you, Sam. You're 25 years old with no job and no home address. Your mother died when you were a baby. Your father's whereabouts are unknown. And then there's the case of your brother, Dean, whose demise was, well, just a little bit exaggerated. Feel free to jump in whenever you like," she said as she looked up at me from the folder she was reading from.

"So you got whatever you got from county records. Big deal," Athena said, causing the detective's eyebrow to raise.

"Athena Lindsay Patterson Johnson. 27 years old, or soon to be 28, with a job in a highly prized fashion shop in Los Angeles, California that you left when you suddenly disappeared. Your parents died when you were just 16 years old. You're married to a David Johnson and it looks to me like you are on your way to a divorce, which the attorney for your husband, or soon to be ex-husband, is still waiting for you to sign. And this is not the first time you disappeared from society. You disappeared when you were just 18 years old and reappeared again when you were about 21 years old and married David Johnson just months later. Shall I continue?" she asked as she read from another folder, causing Athena to merely give her a glare.

"I thought so. So now we're back to you, Sam. Shy? Not a problem. I'll keep going. Your family moved around a lot when you were a kid and despite that, you were a straight A student with a full ride scholarship to Stanford. Then there was a fire in your apartment with one fatality -- Jessica Moore, your girlfriend. After she died, you fell off the grid for a while. Left behind everything," she said.

"I need some time off. To deal. I was taking a road trip with my brother," I said.

"And how did that go for you?" she asked, causing Athena to scoff and roll her eyes.

"He met and fell in love with a girl and just recently got hitched. But I'm sure you have that in your file too, right?" Athena asked, causing me to sigh and run a hand over my face. I swear that she and Artemis were one in the same.

"Yes, in fact I do. You recently married a Lauren Orion and disappeared off the grid once again when she disappeared right from your reception. There was blood everywhere in the bathroom where it was said she was taken from. Cops in Lawrence say that there is still no trace of who could have taken her and the fact that her new husband, brother-in-law, and two best friends disappeared is suspicious. Have I covered everything?" she asked as she gave me a look.

"That about covers it," I replied with a bit of sarcasm, in which she merely gave me a look as her face turned completely serious.

"We ran both Dean and Artemis' fingerprints through AFIS. Nothing on Artemis, but we got over a dozen possible hits on Dean," she said.

"A dozen possible hits. Which makes them worthless," I said as Athena nodded.

"Especially Artemis' prints. Her record is clean, so you're not going to find anything," she said with a smirk.

"But it makes you wonder about how she got mixed up with Dean. And it also makes you wonder about what we're going to find when we run both of your prints," the detective said, causing Athena to snort with laughter.

"You're not going to find anything on me. My record, besides a couple of speeding tickets when I was younger, is clean," she said.

"Exactly. So you be sure to let us know, all right? May I?" I asked as I pointed to the coffee cup in front of me, causing the detective to nod before I picked it up. This was getting ridiculous and we still had yet to find out what was going on with Dean or Artemis except for the fact that they were being held on suspicion of murder, which didn't make any sense since I know they hadn't murdered anyone.

"You two seem like good people. It's not your fault, Sam, that Dean is your brother or that Artemis is like a sister. We can't pick our family. Right now detectives in St. Louis are exhuming a corpse. They're trying to figure out how your brother faked his own death after torturing all those young women. Dean's a bad guy. As for Artemis, her files are being pulled as to how exactly she is connected to you and what her background story is. That's taking a little bit of time since most of her records are under lock and key with the British Parliament. I would assume she got caught up with you Winchesters when you began dating Lauren, although what records we do have indicate that she was born here in the United States in Los Angeles, California where she lost both of her parents by the time she was 8 and was moved to London until she was about 14. Which is when our records show her living back in the states with you, Miss Johnson," she said as she looked to Athena.

"Well aren't you detectives just so smart. You seem to think of everything," Athena said, causing me to shake my head.

"Athena, that's enough," I said, causing her to give me a dirty look but keep her mouth shut.

"Your brother's life is over. Yours doesn't have to be. Yours either, Athena. Artemis may have a chance, but evidence and being caught at the crime may prevent that," the detective said, causing me to raise an eyebrow and look at the her with a crazy look.

"You want me to turn against my own brother? Against a good friend?" I asked, causing her to shake her head.

"No. We caught the both of them cold and red-handed at the Karen Giles murder scene. We just need either of you to fill in some of the missing pieces," she replied as she took a seat across from me.

"Why would we want to do that?" Athena asked, caution filling her voice, in which I didn't blame her for. I really didn't like where this was going.

"Because I can talk to the DA. Make a deal for you both. You can get on with your life. Dean is as good as gone and Artemis…well like I said before. She may have a chance if evidence shows that she didn't commit the murder. She may get time because she was caught at the scene with Dean, but that doesn't necessarily mean that there's a chance she could be charged fully with the murder if evidence proves no fingerprints and whatnot," she replied, causing me to sigh as I looked to Athena. I could tell she was thinking somewhere along the same lines as I was and I sighed again. I couldn't believe this.

"My dad and Tony Giles were old friends. They were in the service together. We've known him since we were kids, you know. So we came when we heard about his death," I said as I recalled the events that brought us around to Baltimore. Not that I would tell her everything the way it really was. I wasn't stupid.

_*__Flashback__*_

"_I think that pink and green would go great together."_

"_And I say that you're crazy." _

"_What? A bright pink top with a bright green skirt, shredded pink leggings, green converses, and my hair pulled back with bright green pom-poms is a great outfit. It's totally me."_

"_And it's totally crazy. Although, you're outfits are usually crazy if you're not in jeans and a tank top. Here you go," I said as I set down four coffees on the café table we were converging at, jumping out of Artemis' swinging range with a laugh as she tried to hit me for my comment._

"_You better watch it, Sam. I know where you sleep at night," she said, causing me to roll my eyes as Dean folded the paper he was reading and placed it in front of me._

"_Anthony Giles," he said, causing me to raise an eyebrow at my brother._

"_Who's Anthony Giles?" I asked._

"_A Baltimore lawyer who was working late at his office. Check it out," he replied, causing me to start skimming through the article Dean mentioned._

"_What's it say?" Athena asked._

"_Ah…his throat was slit but the room was clean. Huh. No DNA and no prints," I replied._

"_Somebody do a good job of cleaning up afterwards or something?" Artemis asked._

"_Keep reading. It gets better," Dean replied as I looked back at the article._

"_Security cameras failed to capture footage of the assailant," I said, cocking an eyebrow as I looked at my brother._

"_Somebody tampered with the tapes…"_

"_Or it's an invisible killer. Oh joy. That sounds fun," Artemis said with sarcasm as she took a sip of her coffee._

"_My favorite kind. So what do you think, Scully? Should we check it out?" Dean asked, causing me to scoff._

"_I'm not Scully. You're Scully," I replied as he shook his head._

"_No, I'm Mulder. You're a redheaded woman," he said, giving me a smirk as he stood up. Artemis and Athena were trying hard not to laugh and me giving them a mock glare only caused them to giggle more, which caused me to shake my head as I stood up as well. Those two I would never get._

_*__End of Flashback__*_

"So, it would have been hard for Dean to kill Tony considering that we weren't in town," I said as I Detective Ballard a look.

"Tell me what happened next," she said, causing Athena to scoff and run a hand over her face in frustration.

"Why are you so interested? We told you we weren't even in town when Anthony Giles was murdered. What makes you think we made it into town that quick so that Dean and Artemis could have murdered his wife?" Athena asked.

"I'm just doing my job. Trying to fill in everything that is missing so we can determine what exactly happened. Continue," she replied as she looked back to me.

"When we heard about Tony's death, that's when we went to see Karen. She was barely holding it together. We just wanted to be there for her, you know," I said.

_*__Flashback__*_

"_Insurance. I totally forgot about the insurance."_

"_It's alright. We know you've had a lot on your mind with your husband's death," Athena said as she patted Karen Giles' hand in comfort. The four of us were currently sitting around the Giles' table with the wife acting like insurance agents for Anthony Giles' company trying to get any information out of her that we could that could aid us in our own investigation as to what killed her husband. Artemis and Athena were on either side of her giving her comfort as Dean and I handled the rest._

"_Yes. We're very sorry for your loss. And we're really sorry to bother you right now, but the company is required to conduct its own investigation. You understand?" I asked, causing Karen to nod._

"_Sure," she replied._

"_Okay. If you could just tell us anything you remember about the night your husband died," I said._

"_Uh…Tony and I were suppose to have dinner. He called and said that he was having computer troubles and that he had to work late. That was it," she said, causing me to nod slightly as I caught Artemis and Dean out of the corner of my eye sharing a look that I was all too familiar with. I could tell that the wheels were turning in their heads over it. _

"_Do you have any idea who could have done this to him?" I asked, causing her to shake her head._

"_No. No. It's like I told the police. I have no idea," she replied as she started to tear up, causing Athena to gently pat her hand again in an attempt to comfort her._

"_Did Tony mention anything unusual to you in the days before his death?" Dean asked, causing her to look at him in confusion._

"_Unusual?" she asked._

"_Yes. Like strange. Things that he has never mentioned to you before or did things he would never normally do. Anything like that," Artemis replied._

"_Um…he had a nightmare the day before he died, but…I don't know," she said._

"_What kind of nightmare?" I asked._

"_He said that he woke up in the middle of the night and there was a woman standing at the foot of the bed. He said he blinked and she was gone. I mean, it was just a nightmare," she replied._

"_Did he say what she looked like?" Dean asked, causing Karen to give him a suspicious look._

"_What the hell difference does it make what she looked like?" she asked, causing me to give my brother a look that said "what the hell do you think you're doing?" and made to try and cover up whatever suspicion he had laid down, but Artemis already beat me to it._

"_I'm sorry. He can be a little bit insensitive when he does his job. Our company is just trying to be very thorough in our investigation so that we can help the police with as much as we can offer. And also make sure that nothing else was going on in the company that could potentially do you or anyone else harm in connection to your husband's death," she said, causing Karen to look at her before nodding._

"_He said she was pale and that she had red eyes," Karen said as I looked to my brother without a doubt in my mind. It was definitely a case._

_*__End of Flashback__*_

"So I gave Karen a hug. Told her to call me if she needed anything and that was it. End of story," I said as I her a look.

"Sam, I am trying to help you here. But you have got to be honest with me. Now, we have an eyewitness. Someone who saw two men fitting your and your brother's description breaking in Giles' office," she said as she stood up, not happy with anything that we were telling her.

"Look, Detective, Karen called later that day and said that there was stuff she wanted from Tony's office, but the police weren't letting her in," Athena said, causing me to nod in agreement.

"Like a picture of the two of them in Paris, and some other stuff. Look, it was wrong to enter a crime scene, but she gave us a key. After a little bit of time, Dean and Artemis headed back to Karen's place to check up on her. I mean, you know, she'd been pretty upset earlier and Artemis was concerned for her," I added.

"So why didn't you go with them?" she asked.

"We just went back to the motel. Figured they could handle it on their own and if they needed us, they would just call us," Athena replied.

"Which brings me to this. How'd you know where we were staying anyways?" I asked as I gave her a look.

"We found the motel matchbook on your brother when we arrested the two at the scene. So let's quit fooling around. You were with them the whole time you were in Baltimore. Why separate now?" she asked as she tossed an evidence bag onto the table that held the matches. Looking to Athena, she merely shrugged and ran a hand over her face, which indicated that she was getting agitated to the point that if the detective didn't leave her alone, there was going to be some trouble.

"If you're trying to imply that Dean and Artemis left us to go murder Karen Giles, you're wrong. And they'll tell you exactly the same thing we're telling you now, which is pretty ironic since we haven't seen or heard from them since they left to go check on her," Athena said, causing the detective to slam her hands down on the table.

"I heard the 911 call from Karen Giles. She said that someone was in the house," she snapped, causing me to jump out of my chair and push Athena back as she made to move toward her.

"That doesn't prove anything! So you caught them at the scene of the crime! So what? You don't have enough evidence right now to arrest them for murder! A murder in which they didn't commit! God! I swear you cops are all the same! Putting everyone behind bars just to get that loaded paycheck!" she yelled.

"Athena, calm down," I said as she struggled against my grip.

"Why? They're just going to book you and I on charges that are false anyways. You know Dean and Artemis didn't murder Anthony or Karen," she snapped as she gave me a glare.

"I know that, but it's not helping us right now. You need to just really calm down right now," I said, causing her to scowl but throw herself back into her chair as she gave the detective a dirty look.

"Sam…"

"Look, we'll tell you anything you want but just give us a minute to collect ourselves and let me get her calmed down. Maybe find out how my brother and Artemis are doing to let us know that they're doing alright," I said as I turned toward the detective. She gave me a look before shaking her head.

"I'll give you five minutes," she said before walking out of the room.

"Sam…"

"Athena, you have got to keep your mouth shut. This is no time to be playing Artemis. I know you're upset at the situation, but you have to calm down and keep the sarcasm from flowing as freely as you're allowing it. Now, we will get through this and we will get out of here, but I need you to just calm down. I'll have the detective get us some water and then I'll finish talking to her. You just figure out a way to get us out of here. Sound fair?" I asked, causing her to sigh but nod nonetheless.

"Yeah. Whatever," she said.

"Alright. She should be coming back in any second," I said, sitting down just as Detective Ballard came back into the room. Looking to Athena, she gave me a nod and I sighed as the detective took a seat. This was going to be a long day.

* * *

**Dean's POV**

"Will you stop fidgeting? It's getting on my nerves."

"Well I'm sorry. I'm hungry, I may have to use the bathroom soon if they keep giving us water to bloody drink, and these cuffs are really chaffing my wrists. I'm so not going to let my boyfriend or husband use bondage, especially if it involves metal handcuffs. Oh shut up!" I let a smirk grace my lips as Artemis gave me a glare.

"You've really got to watch yourself, Summers. You can't go around giving guys ideas like that because you never know when we're going to use them. If we use them at all," I said, causing her to flip me off and lean back in her chair.

"I hate you," she said.

"Keep telling yourself that, princess. Keep telling yourself that," I said as I leant back into my chair with a triumphant smirk still in place. She merely gave me a look before shaking her head and sighing.

"Dean, how the bloody hell are we going to get out of here? This is seriously not good," she said, causing me to sigh.

"I don't know," I said.

"This is great. So all of our work that we've done so far is going to go to waste? What happens when someone else dies, Dean? Then what?" she asked as she gave me an incredulous look, causing me to raise an eyebrow.

"Artemis…"

"I'm serious, Dean. Another innocent person could be…"

"Artemis! Shut up for just one second. You just gave yourself an answer," I said, causing her to go from giving me a dirty look to giving me a look of confusion.

"What are you talking about?" she asked.

"Remember what we found at the house?" I asked, causing her to give me a look before I could see the wheels starting to turn in her head as she seemed to recall how we landed ourselves in this hot mess.

_*__Flashback__*_

"_I just don't get it. If there's no Dana Shulps anywhere in the system or any Shulps for that matter, then who the hell are we looking for? I mean, this seemed to appear just about everywhere in Anthony Giles' office. Not to mention she's supposedly a pale, red eyed woman. This is really bugging me. Who the bloody hell is she?"_

"_Can you pull up anything on your computer to indicate whether or not she existed outside of Baltimore?" I asked as I glanced to the frustrated female sitting beside me. We were on our way to check on Karen Giles to make sure she was alright and to see if we could possibly dig up something at the house that we couldn't find in Tony Giles' office, leaving Sam and Athena to take care of that._

"_I could, but that would probably take a bit of time. I mean, you're asking me to look into every record of every person to ever exist in the United States. That could take a couple of hours," she replied, causing me to sigh._

"_This is one strange case," I said, causing her to nod in agreement as we pulled up to the Giles' home. Seeing that there were no lights on in the house, I assumed that she could have been in bed, but it was better to be safe than sorry. Getting out, Artemis and I headed up the walkway and knocked on the door. Hearing no sounds on the other side of the door, I knocked again while Artemis peered, or tried to peer, through the windows._

"_I can hear the television running just barely, so she's got to be in there. No answer?" she asked, causing me to shake my head and peer out toward the street to make sure that nobody was around before pulling out a little pocket knife to pick the lock. Hearing it click, I ushered Artemis inside before closing the door softly behind me. Checking to see if any of the lights worked, I found that, despite hearing the television running like Artemis had pointed out, nothing was working._

"_She got startled by something," Artemis said as she headed for the stairs._

"_What makes you so sure?" I asked as I followed._

"_Because the batteries from the remote for the television are scattered on the floor in the living room like she had dropped it and there's a box of tissues on the floor. Some of them are used, which indicates that she had been crying over her husband's death," she replied, causing me to shake my head in confusion. I could never understand this girl's logic most of the time._

"_I'm not following. What makes you think that she was startled?" I asked._

"_Because she wouldn't be on the floor with her throat slit and laying in a puddle of her own blood if she wasn't," she replied as she peered into a room, which caused me to push the door open further to see Karen Giles laying on the floor in a puddle of blood dripping from her slit throat. _

"_Oh god," I muttered, running my hand over my face as we stepped further into the room._

"_Looks like we were too late on this one. Looks like our mysterious pale, red eyed friend got another one," she said as she picked up some papers from what looked like a printer for a home computer._

"_What makes you say that?" I asked._

"_Because they have Dana Shulps written all over them. Again. Just like what we found in Anthony's office," she replied as she handed me the papers. Sure enough, Dana Shulps was written all over the papers just like we had discovered in Giles' office just about an hour before hand. The thing was, it wasn't much help because neither of us knew who this woman was and there was no record of her, which I knew was bugging the shit out of Artemis the most since she hated not knowing things. I knew that this case was going to drive her up the wall until she found out who this spirit actually was and what the hell it wanted._

"_There's nothing in this bedroom that indicates that she put up a fight. It was like she was startled but then was taken by surprise maybe a few minutes later. Dean, what the hell are you doing? Don't touch the body," she said, turning to look at me as I knelt down next to Karen and picked up her wrist to examine it._

"_I'm just checking to see if there are any other marks on her body besides the slit on her throat that might tell us more than what we already know. This spirit ain't giving us much to go on," I said as I gave her a look, causing her to sigh and run a hand over her face in frustration._

"_Dean, this isn't going to end well. This is…"_

"_Freeze. Stay on your knees. You, get on your knees and keep your hands where we can see them. Now." I heard Artemis let out a few swears under her breath as she dropped to her knees and put her hands in the air like the cops directed. Catching her eye, I sighed and put my hands in the air as well as both officers standing in the doorway moved to put us in cuffs. You had to be kidding me? Right?_

_*__End of Flashback__*_

"But we couldn't find her in any of the records, Dean. That's like the only piece of evidence we have from both crime scenes and there isn't a Dana Shulps anywhere in the system. In the city of bloody fucking Baltimore for that matter. So we don't exactly have anything to go on. And why are we discussing this again?" she asked as she gave me a look, causing me to sigh.

"I swear that you're impossible to work with alone. I don't understand how Sam can put up working with you one on one," I said, causing her to scoff and shake her head.

"Like you're any better. Besides, Sam's got patience with me, which is something you don't have that much of," she said, causing me to roll my eyes.

"You're not much better, sweetheart," I retorted.

"You know what? This isn't doing us any good arguing. We should be thinking of ways to get the hell out of here before that damn spirit kills again. I hate these cases," she said as she sighed.

"Well, we don't exactly get to choose how these cases land in our laps, Artemis. It just comes with the territory of the job. You know this," I said, causing her to shake her head.

"That's not it, Dean. I hate these cases with spirits killing innocent people because it reminds me a lot about my mom," she said.

"What?" I asked as I gave her a curious look.

"My mom died in a fire trying to protect my baby brother, Dean. She protected me against my step-mother when we were trying to figure out how to break the curse. Most spirits we've hunted have had a reason to get revenge or to kill just because they want to. My mom had every reason to kill innocent people because of the way she died and what had happened to her family," she replied.

"Artemis, your mom didn't kill anybody. You said it yourself. She protected you against your step-mother's spirit. I'm not understanding where this is going," I said, causing her to let out a bitter chuckle.

"Of course you don't. Because you don't live in my shoes every day. Have to live with what I'm going through. Dean, I don't want to end up like my mom. I don't want to end up like something that we hunt," she said, causing me to sigh.

"Art, you're not going to end up like your mother. And you're definitely not going to end up something we're going to have to hunt and kill later down the road. I hate to say this, but you're an important part of our team. Our family. What's going through that head of yours? And I know I'm sounding like Sam right now, but Sam isn't here to say it. You're not sounding like yourself and with each case we've been on, you've become a lot more agitated and frustrated with our job," I said.

"Because Kiki's still missing. Every case we take is a bust in finding her. And now I'm sitting in jail for something I didn't do and that's wasting valuable time to solving this case and possibly finding another one that could lead to my best friend. Not to mention that yellow-eyed bastard hasn't popped in a few weeks, which is a real surprise because I'm suppose to play a really big part in whatever the bloody fuck he's got planned. Dean, that trip to England was torture. I spent countless hours reading up on my family history. Well, as much as I could before the servants ratted me out to my grandmother. Dean, my entire mother's side of the family is nothing but demons. I mean, aunts, uncles, great-grandparents, etc. All demons and all working under yellow eyes. The family history is horrible. Especially the legend," she said, causing me to raise an eyebrow.

"Legend?" I asked.

"I could only decipher a few things on the wall in one of the locked rooms in my grandparents house. I was never allowed to go in them and the curiosity got the better of me when I literally stayed with my grandparents for a while. Yes I know I said that they didn't want me or whatever because of my mother, but I stayed with them for a few weeks to see what I could come up with from them instead of the outside world. Anyways, it said something along the lines of "one female shall rule the underworld with a special child by her side and together they will stand and lead an army." I think that's what I deciphered. I don't read demon despite having that in my blood, but I don't know. The servants caught me before I could try to properly decipher it and I figured it was time to go home, in which I called Sam," she said.

"So that's what you went to England for. You think you might be the one the legend is talking about?" I asked, causing her to shrug.

"Don't know, but yeah. It's what I went to England for. Well, actually it started out as just a simple way for me to get away from everything. One thing happened that led to another and I found myself back in the states with a missing best friend. I don't want to be evil, Dean. I don't want to end up like the things we hunt. I don't want to be on the end of what your father told you to do to Sam if something like that should happen. We have to get out of here, Dean. Seriously," she said, causing me to look at her in shock.

"How do you know what my dad told me? That was almost two years or so ago, Artemis. And you weren't even paying attention when he said it," I said.

"Yellow eyes told me to keep you from doing something stupid, Dean. He's got big plans for Sam. I just wish I knew what they were," she said, causing me to sigh and run a hand over my face in frustration. This was all just too much on me. Between this case and Artemis actually opening up to me, this was all just too much.

"Wait. Hold on. Artemis must be in a real panic if she's starting to spill her guts to anyone other than Sam," I thought as I banged my head on the table. I was seriously losing it.

"Stop banging your head on the table, Dean. We don't need you to lose all your brain cells. Or what's left of them anyways," she said, causing me to groan as I looked at her with a glare.

"And the bitch is back," I said, causing her to roll eyes.

"Let's focus on the case at hand," she said.

"Lovely subject change," I said.

"Dean, I had a moment of panic. Sam wasn't here. You are. So shut up and start thinking about Dana Shulps," she said, causing me to roll my eyes.

"Well maybe she's not a real person," I said.

"How do you figure? Karen Giles said that her husband saw a pale, red eyed woman standing at the foot of his bed. How is that not a real person? Sounds like a spirit to me. One pissed off spirit to be slitting throats. That pretty much tells me your wrong," she said.

"Well, I think…" But I was cut off as there came a knock at the door and a man stuck his head inside the room.

"Mr. Winchester and Miss Summers?" he asked, causing Artemis and I to look at one another before looking back at him. What the hell did these cops want from us now?

"Uh…yeah," I replied with a nod as he smiled slightly and shut the door behind him.

I'm Jeff Krause. I'm with the public defender's office. I'm your lawyer," he said, causing Artemis to roll her eyes as she leant back in her seat.

"I can afford one, thank you very much," she said.

"Is that so? Well then, I'll just talk with Mr. Winchester here," he said as he looked to me.

"Oh thank god. I'm saved. And you're talking, sweetheart. Your lawyer is busy with a big case in England, remember?" I asked as I looked to Artemis. She merely stuck out her tongue and gave me a glare in response.

"Very well then. I will represent both of you until she can either get a hold of her lawyer or get another one that is not so busy," he said.

"That's great. Can I steal a pen and some paper from you?" I asked, causing him to nod as he reached inside his jacket for a pen and his briefcase for some paper before handing it over to me, in which I began to write. Something was seriously bugging me about this Dana Shulps.

**Artemis' POV**

"Well, the good thing is that the police didn't find a murder weapon yet. So it's a really good thing. But they got your prints and, literally, blood on your hands. Well, Mr. Winchester's hands actually. Nothing was traced on you, Miss Summers, which is a good thing for you in this case. However, police records…"

"Mr. Krause, have they given you my file yet?" I asked, causing him to shake his head.

"I'm afraid not, Miss Summers. Well, what they have from your citizenship in the state of California. Unfortunately, your records are being processed from the British Parliament, so it could be a couple of days before I have them in my hands," he replied.

"Mr. Krause, like I told Detective Sheridan before, I have no record of anything. It's clean. I have no police record, so I don't know why you're talking to me about it. I don't know why anybody keeps talking to me about it. I feel like a bloody fucking record," I snapped, causing him to sigh.

"Miss Summers, I am just trying to cover my basis with both of you. I have looked at your file and I do see that you have a clean record. But with Dean's, they have much on him. Mr. Winchester, what is it that you are doing?" he asked, causing me to look over at Dean as he continued to write on the paper that was given to him. Being curious, I leaned against the table to see what exactly he was writing.

"Dean?" I asked.

"I think it's an anagram," he replied, causing me to raise an eyebrow.

"A what?" I asked.

"An anagram. Same letters, different words. Could you do me a favor? See if you recognize any of these words. You know. Local names, places, etc. Anything like that," he replied as he showed me what he had written before pushing it toward the lawyer. It had different spellings of what Dana Shulps could actually be and I was still confused. What could be made out of those letters if she wasn't a person?

"Do you understand how serious these charges are, Mr. Winchester?" Mr. Krause asked, causing me to snort with laughter as I hung my head off the back of the chair. We were chained to a god damn bloody table. Of course we knew.

"We're handcuffed to a table. Yeah I get it. Humor me. Take a quick look," he replied as I brought my head back up to look at the lawyer. He stared at Dean for a second before sighing and picking up the pad of paper to take a look. It only took about a second before he looked back at him.

"S-U-P, I don't know about that, but Ashland is a street name," he said, causing me to raise an eyebrow as he pushed the pad back to Dean.

"A street?" I asked, causing him to nod.

"Yes. It's not far from here. Now, since we have your curiosity cleared up, let's start with where you were the night that Anthony Giles died," he replied as he opened up a folder to start writing.

"Can you get in to see my brother?" Dean asked.

"Mr. Winchester, you could be facing the death penalty here," he said, causing Dean to let out a scoff as he looked up from the pad.

"Thanks for the law review, Matlock. But if you want to help me and my girl here, I need you to see my brother," Dean said as he ripped the piece of paper off and folded it before handing it to the lawyer. He stared at us before he shook his head and stood up.

"I will deliver this to your brother and I will talk to him about his case since I have been advised as his and Miss Johnson's attorney as well. But I will be back to discuss your case as soon as I am through with them and I suggest that there be no more interruptions when I return," he said before grabbing his briefcase and walking out the door. The second it shut, I rounded on Dean.

"What is going on, Dean? What the hell was that all about?" I asked.

"I'm giving those two time. Just follow my lead," he replied.

"What? Why?" I asked, causing him to smirk before he began to talk.

"Hey! Hello! I know you're watching us somehow. I'm ready to confess," he said in a somewhat sing-song voice, causing me to look at him in complete shock and confusion. More shock than anything.

"What?" I asked as Detective Sheridan threw open the door and gave us a smirk.

"It's about damn time you gave in. Holtz, get the camera! Smith, get Diana to go grab his lawyer so that we can say that they had one present and that we didn't force him to confess. This is just great," he said as I gave him a glare before looking at Dean. I couldn't believe he was going to do this. He was bloody fucking nuts.

"Trust me," he said as he leant toward me so that I was the only one that could hear him. Trust him? He had to be kidding. In a time like this? Him pulling this stunt? This was nuts. However, as I looked him in the eyes, I could see that pleading look that I had seen so many countless times before and they were begging for me to trust him with whatever it was he was doing.

"Alright," I said with a nod as the cops began setting up a camera and whatnot to capture Dean's confession. No sooner had I leant back in my chair to stay out of the way when the door opened and the lady detective that I knew was Sheridan's partner, Ballard I think her name was, and the one that must have been working with Sam and Athena, walked in with Mr. Krause right behind her.

"Counselor, your boy decided to confess," Sheridan said, causing Mr. Krause to shake his head as he looked at Dean.

"Mr. Winchester, I'd advise against that strongly," he said, causing me to snort with laughter as I shook my head.

"I tried talking him out of it, Mr. Krause, but the boy is as thick headed and stubborn as they come," I said, causing Sheridan to give me a dirty look as well as a look to shut up, but I merely gave him a smirk and flipped him off to let him know that I wasn't afraid of him. He could kiss my ass if he thought he was going to intimidate me.

"Talk directly into the camera. Start by stating your name for the record," he said as he ignored me and turned his attention back to Dean. Dean gave me a look and I could only shrug at whatever the hell he was going to do, causing him to sigh before looking back toward the camera.

"My name is Dean Winchester. I'm an Aquarius. I enjoy sunsets, long walks on the beach, and frisky women," he said, causing me to put my head against the table and swear despite the slight kick to the leg Dean gave me for doing it. He was just too much and we were so not getting out of here anytime soon.

"And I did not kill anyone. But I know who did. Or rather, what did. Of course, it can't be for sure because our investigation was interrupted. My companions and I have a theory and our working theory is that we're looking for a kind of vengeful spirit," he said, causing me to tip my head back with a laugh as the words just tumbled out of Dean's mouth. Oh yeah. We're done for.

"Excuse me?" Detective Ballard asked.

"You know, Casper the bloodthirsty ghost? Tony Giles saw it. I'll bet you cash money Karen did too. But see, the interesting thing is the word it leaves behind. For some reason, it's trying to tell us something. But, as you might guess, communicating across the veil isn't easy. Sometimes the spirits get things jumbled. You remember redrum? Same concept. You know, it's…it could be word fragments. Other times, it's anagrams. See, at first we thought that this was a name, Dana Shulps. But now, we think it's a street. Ashland. Whatever is going on, I'm betting it started there," he replied, causing me to look at him in shock as he just pretty much spilled out everything we had been investigating. Like he was wanting them to lock us up. Like he was…

"Giving Sam time," I muttered as I realized what Dean was doing. He was giving Sam and Athena time to escape while just about every cop was in here or in the room next to us watching Dean's confession to the murders. That smug bastard. Genius at that. Looking to the cops, I smirked in satisfaction as I could see the irritation crossing Sheridan's face, but it faltered slightly when I looked at the female. I could see something in her face, in her eyes that was betraying the composure she was trying to keep. Like she knew something about this. Like maybe she had seen something that Dean was talking about. Maybe. I couldn't get that good of a reading on her at this point.

"You arrogant bastard. Tony and Karen were good people. You're making jokes," Sheridan said as he brought me back to the situation at hand.

"I'm not joking, Ponch. My girl here will tell you exactly what I just said and back me up a hundred percent," Dean said, causing Sheridan to walk toward him. I made to get up and get in the way like I normally did with Sam and Dean when they were in a fight and face to face with each other, but I realized that I was still handcuffed to the table. I could only sit back and watch things unfold, which I didn't like at all. Not one bit.

"You murdered them in cold blood just like that girl in St. Louis," Sheridan snapped, causing Dean to look back at the camera and shake his head.

"That wasn't me either. That was a shape shifter creature that only looked like me," he said before looking back at the detective. It only took about two seconds before Sheridan had grabbed Dean up by his jacket and slammed him against the wall. On instinct I got up, but I hissed in pain as the cuffs dug themselves into my skin and caused me to sit down and watch helplessly.

"Pete, that is enough," the Ballard said as she tried to intervene.

"You asked for the truth," Dean said as he gave Sheridan a smug grin. Sheridan stared at him for a second before letting him go and headed for the door.

"Lock his ass up. Keep the girl here. I want to interrogate her myself in a few minutes," he said before he slammed the door behind him. Looking to Dean, he gave me a reassuring smile and nod before another cop led him out of the room. Sighing, I looked to the female detective with an irritated look.

"I've been locked up for hours now and I'm hungry and really have to use the bathroom. The least you people can do is allow me those things so I don't sue you for mistreating a suspect on charges you can't file just yet," I said, causing her to sigh and nod as she came forward and started to undo the cuffs. Rubbing at my wrists, I stood and followed her out of the room as she passed me along to another female officer before walking down the hallway in the opposite direction. Sighing, I rubbed my hand over my face. This was not going well. Not going well at all and I could tell I was in for a worse interrogation by that prick of a cop once he had me alone. Son of a bitch.

* * *

"I want to know more about that stuff that Dean was talking about earlier." I raised an eyebrow as I set my water down and swallowed what I had in my mouth as I looked to Detective Ballard standing before me. She had to be kidding me right? Her partner had just finished up interrogating me to hell not even ten minutes ago and she wanted to talk about what Dean said earlier?

"What for? See a ghost?" I asked with sarcasm.

"I'm going to over look your sarcasm as I know you're tired from being interrogated all day and your partner had a rough spot with mine. Not to mention your other two companions somehow managed to escape. How? We haven't figured that out just yet. But let's pretend for the moment that Dean is not entirely insane. What would one of these things be doing here?" she asked, causing me to give her a look of curiosity.

"Why are you asking me? What makes you think that I totally agree with him on anything?" I asked.

"Because he seemed completely confident that you would back him up no matter how crazy he sounded. And you've been connected to the Winchesters for quite a while, so I figure that you would have an idea as to what he was talking about," she replied, causing me to sigh as I rubbed a hand over my face. Why did I have to get stuck with this?

"A vengeful spirit?" I asked.

"Yes. What would it be doing here?" she asked.

"Well, vengeful spirits are usually created by violent deaths. And then they come back for a reason, which is usually a bloody nasty one. No pun intended. Like revenge on the people that hurt them," I replied.

"And, uh…these spirits are capable of killing people?" she asked, causing me to scoff and shake my head as I looked at her. I made to say something sarcastic to her when I noticed something underneath the edges of her sleeves. It looked like a bruise of some sort.

"Where did you get that?" I asked, looking at her as she brought her hand away from her face and moved the sleeve up some to reveal not one bruise but two ringed bruises on each wrist.

"I don't know. It wasn't there before," she said, causing me to rerun everything that had happened so far back through my mind, carefully picking out things that hadn't stood out before. Dana Shulps was everywhere, Sam and Athena sifting through Tony Giles' office, Dean and I finding Karen dead in her bedroom with Dean holding her wrist to check for…

"Wait a minute," I said as I ran that scene of the bedroom through my head again. I had told Dean not to touch the body in fear of it leaving finger prints and he had replied he was checking for any other indications besides the slit throat. There were bruises on Karen Giles' wrists. The same ones that Detective Ballard had on her wrists right now. Which meant…

"You've seen it, haven't you? The spirit?" I asked, bringing myself out of my thoughts to look at her.

"How did you know?" she asked as she gave me a look of shock.

"Because Karen Giles had the same bruises on her wrists when Dean and I found her. And I bet you my entire bloody fortune that if you look at Tony Giles' autopsy photos, he's got them as well. Dean was right. It's got something to do with this spirit. I just don't know what. And it would also explain why you looked like you were kind of jumpy or maybe you looked so unsure of what was being said earlier," I said, causing her to look at me before she turned away and walked toward the glass window. I could tell just by her reaction and body language what she was thinking.

"I know what you're thinking. You're thinking that you're going crazy. But you know that I know you're not. So let's skip that part, shall we? Because the last two people who saw this thing died pretty soon after," I said, causing her to whirl around to look me in the eye to see if I was serious.

"You think I'm going to die?" she asked, causing me to shrug.

"I don't know. I'm chained up, so I can't exactly help you, now can I? What you need to do is go to Sam and Athena. They'll help," I replied as she gave me an incredulous look.

"You're giving your friends up?" she asked.

"Go to the first motel listed in the yellow pages. Look for Jim Rockford. It's how Athena and I are able to find the boys when we get separated from them. Now, you can arrest them if you want. Or you can let them save your life since Dean nor I can be of any help right now. It would be awfully hard to explain why a murder suspect is missing from the police station, especially if the detective talking to her at this moment also goes missing," I replied as I crossed my arms and leaned back in my chair. She studied me for a second before sighing.

"And you're sure they'll be able to help? You're not jerking my chain?" she asked, causing me to shake my head.

"Detective Ballard, I have my own bloody problems to deal with. I don't have time to be yanking chains on anyone. Well, Dean's actually an exception because I love torturing the bloody fuck out of him, but yes. They'll be able to help you and hopefully solve this thing before you get killed as well," I replied with a nod. She gave me another look before nodding and heading out the door, causing me to let out a sigh as I laid my head on the table. This just made everything worse. Dean and I were stuck in jail while Sam and Athena had somehow managed to escape and to top it all off, the spirit was now after Detective Ballard. A cop for bloody sakes. And I was stuck by myself, which I wasn't too happy about. Although I hated being alone with Dean, I hated it even more being by myself with this kind of trouble. Sighing, I made to close my eyes to do a little bit of sleeping before anyone else came to bother me when the door opened and Sheridan walked in.

"What now? Didn't you get enough of your bloody jollies interrogating the bloody hell out me, detective?" I asked as he uncuffed me and pulled me roughly out of the chair.

"We've just received your records from London and I must say, Miss Summers, that you are one incredible liar. Your record is far from clean. While your partner is being extradited to St. Louis in connection to the murder of the young girl he tortured, you are being extradited back to London for the murder of one Silvia Green," he replied as he cuffed my hands behind my back.

"What?!" I exclaimed before yelping as he tightened them a little two tight. He merely smirked before he roughly pulled me after him. Extradition? Murder? I didn't murder anyone and whatever record he got was a fake. What the bloody hell was going on?

* * *

**Sam's POV**

"So how many girls do we have that could have possibly died on Ashland Street? Actually, what do we know about Ashland Street since that seems to be the key subject now in our investigation?"

"Uh…well there were a couple of girls that have died or gone missing within Ashland Street, but we can't exactly get a good pinpoint on anyone in particular since we don't know anything about the spirit. Except that she's pale and has red eyes. That doesn't give us much to go on," I replied as I shuffled through some papers.

"Yeah, well we better do…" But Athena was cut off by a knock at the door, in which I gave a look to Athena as I cautiously stood up. The last time we were in a motel together, the police busted down the door and we had been arrested. Making my way toward the door, I slowly opened the door and raised an eyebrow in confusion when I saw Detective Ballard standing on the other side by herself with a scared but determined look on her face.

"Sam, who is it?" Athena asked.

"Detective Ballard," I replied as I moved aside to allow the detective inside and shut the door tightly behind her.

"Great. She's here to arrest us. Again. We're never going to figure this out, Sam," she snapped as she stood up.

"I'm not here to arrest you. Artemis sent me. She said that you two could help me," Ballard said, causing me to raise an eyebrow.

"Artemis sent you?" I asked.

"Why is that surprising? Isn't she a part of your team?" she asked, confusion lacing her voice, which caused me to slightly chuckle and rub the back of my neck.

"Um…Artemis never gets along nicely with cops unless she has to. So for her to be sending you our way must mean that you must be in pretty big trouble," I replied, causing her to hold up her arms. Lifting an eyebrow, I looked at them and frowned as I noticed bruising to her wrists.

"What…"

"I saw it," she said, causing Athena to stop what she was doing and stand up, moving toward us and frowning when she saw the marks.

"How did you…"

"I don't know. One minute I was fine and then the next minute Artemis spots them in the interrogation room," Ballard replied.

"So these showed up after you saw it?" Athena asked, causing the detective to nod.

"Alright. Well, you're going to have to tell us exactly what you saw," I said, causing Ballard to sigh as she shook her head.

"You know, I must be losing my mind. You two are fugitives and I should be arresting you," she said, causing Athena to snort with laughter as she made her way back to the table and sat down to do more work.

"Well, you know what? Arrest us and you die. Every other victim that's come across this spirit has died, which means that you're next," Athena said as she started shuffling through papers. The detective stared at her for a minute before looking at me.

"Did they…"

"Yeah. They seem to switch personalities when they're not together. But she's right. You can arrest us once you live through this. You got to tell us everything you know and saw. Okay?" I asked, causing her to stare at me before sighing with a nod.

"What did the spirit look like?" Athena asked as she joined in despite not paying any attention to us anymore. I hated when she did that. Artemis did it too. It was actually really creepy sometimes. Like now.

"Um…she was really pale and her throat was cut. And her eyes. They were like this deep dark red. It appeared like she was trying to talk to me but she couldn't. It was just a lot of blood," she replied as she sat on the bed, her voice holding trace of disbelief that she was even saying any of this despite knowing she really did see it.

"Uh…you know what? Here. Athena and I've been researching every girl who has ever died or gone missing from Ashland Street," I said as I made my way over to the table and picked up the pictures of every girl we had.

"How'd you get those? Those are from crime scenes and booking photos," she said as she gave me a look of disbelief.

"You have your job and we have ours," Athena said, looking up from her work with a smirk, which caused me to chuckle and shake my head.

"Athena, play nice. Here. I need you to look through these and tell me if you recognize anyone," I said, handing Ballard the pictures to look at. Taking them from me, she sat on the bed and began to leaf through as I took a piece of paper that Athena had written on and skimmed through it for more information.

"This is her. I'm sure of it." I looked up from the paper at the detective as she held the photos toward me. Looking at the girl staring back at me, I skimmed the information at the bottom of the photo.

"Who is she?" Athena asked as she leaned over the table to get a look.

"Claire Becker. 28 years old. She disappeared about eight or nine months ago," I replied.

"But I don't even know her. I mean, why would she come after me?" Ballard asked.

"Well, before her death, she was arrested twice for dealing heroin. You ever work narcotics?" I asked, causing her to nod.

"Yeah. Pete and I did before working homicide," she replied.

"You ever bust her?" I asked as I held up the picture of Claire, causing Ballard to shake her head.

"Not that I remember," she replied, causing me to sigh as I set down the picture and began searching through the piles of information we had on Claire.

"County records say that she was last seen entering 2911 Ashland Street. Police searched the place but didn't find anything. Well that's unusual for us," Athena said as she looked up from the laptop, causing me to nod.

"Guess we'll have to check it out ourselves. See if we can't find her body," I said.

"What?" Ballard asked as she gave us a crazy look.

"Well, we got to salt and burn her bones. It's the only way to put her spirit to rest," I replied as I stood up and put on my jacket.

"Of course it is," she said, sarcasm lacing every word.

"County records show that it's just an abandoned building, so we should have no problem getting inside," Athena said as we locked up the room and headed down to the detective's car.

"You broke into county records?" she asked as she gave Athena a look of disbelief.

"You're just lucky that it's me doing it. Artemis would be giving you a run for your money," Athena replied, smirking as she got into the car. I merely rolled my eyes and shook my head as I too got into the car. Those two were definitely one in the same. It wasn't long before we pulled up to the abandoned building on Ashland Street and we headed inside.

"What the hell are you doing?" I whirled around to find Athena cocking a gun.

"Athena…"

"Sam, I'm not going to let some spirit make me one of them. I see the bitch and I'm going to shoot her. You should be packing too," she said, hitting me hard against the chest as she walked away from us.

"What the hell is she doing with a gun?" Ballard asked, causing me to sigh as I rubbed the back of my neck.

"It's got shells of rock salt. It deters the ghost for a few seconds," I replied as we began walking again, moving our flashlights in every possible direction for any clue or sign of Claire or her body.

"Okay. So what exactly are we looking for?" she asked.

"I'll let you know when we find it," I replied as I noticed a staircase to my left. Checking to make sure that the detective was alright by herself for a few minutes, I headed up the stairs to check it out. Running my hand along the walls and stepping carefully, I checked for soft spots or anything unusual that would indicate a possible spot for a corpse.

"Sam! Athena!" I whirled around at the sound of my name and quickly took off back down the stairs as my name was screamed again, indicating that the detective was in some sort of trouble. Probably the spirit.

"Detective!"

"Hey! Hey, I'm here. What is it?" I asked as I rounded the corner to find the detective backed against the wall and Athena quickly searching the area, throwing things off the shelves and running her flashlight over areas she couldn't get to.

"She saw it, Sam. Her body is somewhere in this building no doubt," she said as she gave me a look.

"Did she attack you?" I asked, looking to the detective, who shook her head.

"No. No, she was just, like, reaching out to me. She was over there by the window," she replied as she started walking toward the shelf that was blocking the window.

"But there's nothing here. I've torn this shelf apart," Athena said.

"Wait. Help me move," she said as she started tugging on the shelf. Looking to Athena for an answer, she merely shrugged and started tugging on it. Helping them move it completely out of our way, I raised an eyebrow in amazement and wonder as I stared at the writing across the window.

"Well it looks like we found our mystery word. But it doesn't make any sense. What are we suppose to do with it?" Athena asked as she looked to me. However, I wasn't exactly paying attention to her as I slowly turned and looked behind me in the direction the sun was pointing in the window and let out a chuckle. The words from the window were written across the brick wall behind us by the sunlight streaming in.

"Well I'll be damned. Now the extra letters make sense," I said with a scoff as I took out the EMF device.

"What is that?" Ballard asked as I walked toward the wall.

"It's an EMF device. Spirits and certain remains give off electro-magnetic frequencies, in which this device will pick it up," Athena replied.

"So if Claire's body was here, that would indicate that?" she asked, causing Athena to nod.

"Well that's the theory anyways," I replied as the device started going full blast the closer I brought it to the wall.

"And we have ourselves a body. Care to do the honors?" Athena asked with a smirk as she held out a crowbar. I shook my head with a chuckle as I took the crowbar and slammed it against the wall until there was a good enough hole that I could see through. Tossing Athena back the crowbar, I flicked on my flashlight and peered into the hole.

"So do we have ourselves a winner?" she asked, causing me to nod as I spotted something.

"Yeah, yeah. There's definitely something in there. Athena, help me out," I replied as I took the crowbar back and slammed it once again into the wall.

"No problem. However, this whole damn thing is bugging me," she said as she picked up something nearby and started hitting the wall.

"Well, you are digging up a corpse," Ballard said, causing me to roll my eyes as I realized what Athena was getting at.

"No. She doesn't mean that. That's pretty par for the course actually. What Athena means is that this whole job is bugging her, and me too, because no vengeful spirit that we've ever tussled with wanted to be waster. So why the hell would Claire lead us to her remains? It just doesn't make any sense to us. Athena, give me a hand," I said as I finished making a hole large enough to pull the remains of Claire out of the wall. Grabbing onto what we could, we struggled just slightly but pulled a heavy clothed blanket out of the wall and placed it on the floor. Kneeling down, I realized that rope was wrapped around the head area, causing me to flip out my knife and slice it open.

"Hello, Claire Becker," Athena said with a shake of her head. Kneeling down, Detective Ballard held up her wrists as I studied Claire's, in which they looked to be in the condition of someone having held onto them or had been tied up in some sort of way which would lead to the bruising.

"Her wrists. Yeah, they'd definitely be bruised just like yours," I said as I gave her a look. However, her gaze drifted toward the corpse's chest as she picked up a necklace hanging around the neck.

"That necklace mean anything to you?" I asked.

"I've seen it before. It's rare. It was custom-made over on Carson Street. I have one just like it," she replied as she pulled the exact same necklace out from beneath her shirt, causing me to frown. I was starting to get confused now.

"Who gave it to you, detective?" Athena asked.

"Pete," she replied, causing Athena to scoff and stand up.

"What?" I asked as I looked up at her.

"Now this all makes perfect sense," she replied.

"I'm sorry?" Ballard asked as she looked just as confused as I did.

"Sam, Claire's not a vengeful spirit. You agreed with me that it didn't make any sense that Claire was leading us to her body. Normally we're having to figure out ways to save ourselves from being killed by the spirits we're salting and burning. But Claire wasn't trying to kill Detective Ballard. If she was, the detective would be on the floor with a pool of blood around her because her throat would be slit just the way Claire's had been. Sam, Claire's a death omen. She's was trying to warn people," she replied, causing me to stare at her for a second before scoffing in realization. She was right. Now it did make perfect sense.

"I'm not following here," Ballard said.

"Athena's right. Claire's not killing anyone. She would have already tried to kill you. Twice actually. She's trying to warn them. See, sometimes spirits don't want vengeance. They want justice, which is why she led us here. She wants us to know who her killer is," I said.

"Which leads us to this point. Detective, how much do you know about your partner?" Athena asked, causing Ballard to look at us before something flashed through her eyes.

"Oh my god," she said, disbelief starting to seep into her voice.

"What?" I asked.

"About a year ago, some heroin went missing from lockup. Obviously it was a cop. We never found out who did it, but whoever did it would need someone to fence their product," she replied.

"Somebody like a heroin dealer. Somebody like Claire," I said as Athena scoffed.

"And all the pieces of the puzzle are finally coming together. Sam, we've got to get to Dean and Artemis before something happens to them. Especially if Pete is overseeing the damn case," Athena said as she started heading for the door. Ballard and I were quick to follow and it wasn't long before we were heading back to the station, Ballard making a call to see what was going on with Pete, Dean, and Artemis at this moment.

"All right. Thanks," she said as she hung up with a slightly irritated sigh.

"What is it?" I asked as I looked at her.

"Pete just left the precinct. With both Dean and Artemis," she replied, causing Athena and I to look at each other in shock before looking back at the detective.

"What?" I asked.

"He said that the prisoners had to be transferred and he just took them. Dispatch has been calling and he won't answer," she replied.

"Radio? He took a county vehicle?" I asked.

"Yeah," she replied with a nod.

"Sam, if he took a county vehicle, it should have a LoJack on it. You just got to get it turned on," Athena said, causing me to nod as we looked to the detective. She gave a look before nodding and dialing a number into her cell phone. Looking back to Athena, I could tell that she was worried and frightened of what was going to happen, but I gave her a small smile in hopes to comfort her. I was worried to about Dean and Artemis, but I knew I had to keep my composure and not panic despite how I was feeling. I just hoped we could get to them in time.

* * *

**Artemis' POV**

"So I'm being extradited to St. Louis, huh? And you just decided to transfer me 800 miles at 2 in the morning by yourself?" I sighed as I listened to Dean tried getting Sheridan to talk, but gave up and tried to make myself comfortable on the steel bench despite the fact that the cuffs tightened around my wrists were making it impossible.

"This can't be good."

"Dean, will you just bloody stop already? You are not going to get him to fucking talk. You might as well talk to the wall behind you," I snapped, causing Dean to turn away from Sheridan and look at me.

"What's wrong with you? Normally you're the first one to jump in to bust my chops or even someone else's," he said.

"I'm fine. I just don't want to listen to your whining the entire time," I snapped, causing him to frown as he leaned toward me.

"Art, what's wrong? You look like you're about ready to cry," he said, causing me to turn my head away from him so that if I did cry, he would see them. I wasn't going to cry. I couldn't. This was wrong.

"Artemis, talk to me," he said, grasping my leg and jerking me gently until I was facing him.

"He's extraditing me back to England for murder," I said, tears starting to fall from my eyes.

"What?" he asked as he gave me a shocked look.

"He came back to the interrogation room not long after he talked to me and told me that he was having me extradited back to England for the murder of one Silvia Green. Dean, I don't even know who she is. Those records he got had to be fake. I didn't murder anyone. I bloody swear it," I said, tears started falling faster as I realized what was going on. I was going to be tried for something I didn't do. I knew I didn't do.

"Hey, hey, hey. Look at me. It'll be alright. There's no doubt that there is a mistake in whatever records they got. I know you couldn't kill anyone unless it was in self-defense. It's going to be alright, Artemis. I promise," he said as he reached up and tried to wipe away the tears.

"How can you promise something like that? We have no way out of this," I said, causing him to chuckle softly.

"I always keep my promises, princess. You know that," he said, causing me to give him a small smile in return. He was right. He always did keep his promises. However, the smile quickly turned into a frown and I pulled back from Dean as the van started shaking a bit. Looking toward the front, I could see trees through the windshield and I knew that we were on a bumpy back road away from the main streets. Something wasn't right. Something was wrong.

"Piss break so soon? You know, you might want to get your prostrate checked," he said, causing me to sigh as Sheridan got out of the van. This was not going to end well.

"Hey, I'm cool in the an. You go do what you got to…Hey!" I let out a yelp as Sheridan roughly grabbed me by the arm and pulled me out of the van, causing me to fall hard to the ground on my side. It wasn't a second before I heard Dean hit the ground beside me.

"You're a cocky son of a bitch. You think those people in St. Louis are going to buy that shit you're peddling? Well here's the thing. You're not going to make it to St. Louis and your girlfriend here is not going to make her flight to London. You're going to die trying to escape and she's going to die while acting an officer in an attempt to save you," he said as he pulled a gun, causing Dean to pull me against him and keep me out of the way the best that he could in shackles. I felt so helpless, especially since I really didn't have any use of my hands with them cuffed behind me.

"Wait. Wait. Let's talk about this. You don't want to do something you're going to regret. Or maybe you do," Dean said, causing me to let out a whimper and bury myself into his side as Sheridan cocked his gun to shoot.

"Pete! Put the gun down!" The sound of Detective Ballard's voice rang through the air and I let out a silent cry of relief as I turned my head to see her, Sam, and Athena come into view.

"Diana? How'd you find me?" he asked as he turned his head in the direction of them but kept his gun pointed at us.

"I know about Claire," she said.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he said.

"Put the gun down," she ordered.

"Oh, I don't think so. See, you're fast, but I'm pretty damn sure that I'm faster," he said as he turned to us with a smirk. Dean's arms tightened around me protectively as I let out a whimper. I really didn't want a bullet in the head.

"Why are you doing this?" Ballard asked as he turned his attention again to her.

"I didn't do anything, Diana," he replied, causing her to scoff.

"It's a little late for that," she said, causing me to look toward Sam, who only nodded in confirmation that Pete was somehow involved. Perhaps the murder to begin with.

"It wasn't my fault. Claire was going to turn me in. I had no choice," he said.

"And Tony? Karen?" she asked.

"Same thing. Tony scrubbed the money and then got skittish. He wanted to come clean. I'm pretty sure he told Karen everything. It was a mess and I had to clean it up. I just panicked," he replied as she shook her head in disbelief. I didn't blame her. I couldn't believe what was going on either.

"How many more people are going to die over this, Pete?" she asked.

"There's a way out. This Dean kid's a fucking gift. We can pin the whole thing on him. Okay? No trial, no nothing. Just one more dead scumbag. Actually, one dead scumbag and one dead whore since her rap sheet didn't look too good either," he replied. A whore? Who the bloody hell did he think he was calling a whore.

"Hey," Dean growled, causing Pete to look back with a glare. Dean made to make a retort but thought better of it when he realized that the gun was now pointing at me.

"No one will question it," he said, causing Ballard to shake her head.

"Her rap sheet is as clean as a whistle like she said, Pete. Whoever gave you those documents must have been pretty damn convincing because they're not real. The entire record you got isn't real. You'd be killing an innocent girl," she said, causing him to look at her in disbelief.

"Diana, please. I still love you," he said, causing me to scoff. You had to be kidding me, right? However, it didn't seem like there was any kidding around as I saw her lower her gun. What the hell was she doing? She was actually going to allow her partner to shoot two innocent people? Looking to Sam and Athena, they were just as shocked and it was like they were frozen in time and couldn't move. This couldn't be happening.

"Thank you. Thank you." I realized that Sheridan was talking again and my eyes widened as he turned to us with a sickening smirk. I buried my face into the crook of Dean's neck and let out a scream as I tumbled backwards in his arms at the sound of a gunshot. However, despite the pain shooting through my wrists, pain from being shot was not felt. Opening my eyes, I found myself in Dean's lap as he held me protectively close to him.

"Don't do it. Don't do it." Turning my head, I saw Ballard on her back and Sam and Athena with their hands in the air as Sheridan struggled to stand with a gun in his hand. I realized then that the shot that had been fired had come from Ballard and hit Sheridan in the leg. Only it seemed like he got the upper hand again.

"Oh god," I whimpered as he pointed the gun toward us once more before turning it toward his partner. I made to say something when something caught my eye and I turned my head just slightly, my eyes widening at the sight of Claire standing at the entrance into the back of the van. Everyone seemed frozen as the wooded area filled slowly with moans, in which Sheridan quickly turned around to the sight behind him. Gripping onto Dean's jacket, I watched as Sheridan's eyes widened. It was actually a little bit amusing to see the cop that had given me and Dean so much hassle in a bit of a fright over something he didn't want to believe earlier. And it was a little bit scary because we didn't know what the hell she was going to do. However, another shot rang out and I buried my face into Dean's chest with a slight scream as Sheridan's body fell to the ground. I could feel my body starting to shake as tears welled up in my eyes, causing Dean to tighten his grip as his hands immediately went to my hair in an attempt to comfort me. Would this nightmare ever end?

* * *

"You doing all right?" I looked up from my conversation with Athena to see Detective Ballard approaching us from where she had been staring at her dead partner's body for the last hour or so, trying to determine, I think, if it was real. If everything that had happened in the last couple of hours had really happened.

"Not really," she replied.

"It'll wear off. Eventually," I said with a slight shrug.

"The death omen, Claire. What happens to her now?" she asked.

"It should be over. She should be at rest," Sam replied, causing her to give us a look before slightly nodding.

"So, now what, officer?" Dean asked as he asked the one question that was on all off our minds. Our future.

"Well, Pete did confess to me and he did screw up all of your cases royally. Especially yours, Artemis. I'll be sure to burn those fake reports the minute I get back in the station. So I'd say that there's a good chance that we can get all the cases dismissed," she replied as we gave her a look of surprise.

"You could take care of that for us?" Sam asked.

"I hope so. However, the St. Louis murder charges? That's another story. I can't help you," she replied, causing me to sigh and run a hand over my face. This was great. She could still hold Dean for those charges since he was technically suppose to be dead but wasn't.

"Unless I just happened to turn my back and you walked away. I could tell them that the suspects escaped," she said, causing me to look at her in surprise.

"Wait. Are you sure?" Sam asked.

"Yeah she's sure, Sam," Dean and I replied at the same time, giving him a look to shut up.

"No, it's just that she could lose her job over something like that," he said.

"Look. I just want you guys out there doing what you do best. Trust me. I'll sleep better at night. Listen, you need to watch your back because they're going to be looking for all of you now. Get out of here. I got to radio this in," she said as she made a motion for us to get our asses out of there. I didn't need to be told twice as I started walking away.

"Well that was eventful. Now I know I can never go back to California to sign those divorce papers," Athena said as she shook her head.

"You are not kidding. I think I might have to have Sam bandage up my wrists once we get to wherever the car is. That damn bastard Sheridan tightened those cuffs so tight around my wrist that they made god damn bloody bruises," I said as I rubbed at my wrists.

"Maybe you should have Dean do it. Sam's wrist is broken and I'm not that good at bandaging. You're lucky you never really got tore up too bad when we were hunting together," she said.

"Yeah. Whatever. Just as long as something gets done," I said.

"He still cares about you," she said, causing me to roll my eyes. Here we go again.

"Athena, I'm too tired to argue with you about this at the moment. Can we please not do this right now?" I asked as I ran a hand over my face.

"Artemis, you're going to have to own up to it soon. I mean, the man protected you today. Kept you close to him when Sheridan was wanting to shoot you both. He still cares for you, Artemis, and I don't see why…"

"Athena! That's enough! I don't want to hear anymore about Dean! Just leave it!" I snapped as I stopped walking and gave her a dirty look.

"Artemis…"

"No. No more," I said.

"Is everything all right, girls?" I turned my head and scoffed as Sam and Dean caught up to us, concern written on both of their faces as they looked between us.

"Uh…yeah. Artemis is just tired from the last several hours. Dean, I'm no good at bandaging and Sam's wrist is broken, so I need you to take care of the bruises starting to form on Artemis' wrists from those handcuffs when we find your car. Which by the way, where is it?" Athena asked.

"Impound yard on Robertson. Are you sure you guys are ok?" Dean asked, causing me to nod.

"Yeah. We're good," I replied before starting to walk again. I could feel three sets of eyes staring into my back, but I completely ignored them as I withdrew myself into my thoughts. I couldn't do this anymore. This was all starting to get too much for me. Between being stuck in interrogation with Dean and spilling some of my guts to him to almost being arrested and extradited for a fake murder to Sam to Kiki, it was all starting to be too much for me. I just didn't know what to do.

"_They're all worthless and you won't be able to save them all."_

I blinked and shook my head as I stopped walking, Sam nearly colliding into me from behind.

"Artemis?" he asked, but I completely ignored him as I shut my eyes at the impending headache starting to form.

"_I could make you a deal. Trade one friend for the other. But then again, that would be no fun since Sam is married to that one and we all know that you and Sam are suppose to be together. It would just ruin everything."_

"_Let her go and I won't hurt you."_

"_You could never hurt your own kin, especially without damaging the only friend you've had all your life. You don't want to do that, now do, sweetheart?"_

"_Let her go."_

"_Take your place where you're suppose to and I won't harm a hair on her head. Take your place as queen of the army and lead us to greatness and there will be no more deaths among your family and friends. Including Dean. We will spare him, despite the fact that he's the hottest thing coming to hell. Take your place."_

"_No. I'm nothing like you. I won't."_

"_Take your place, granddaughter, or suffer the consequences."_

"_No."_

"_Very well then. Let us show you how we deal with disobedience," a woman said before she drove a large knife into her body._

"_No!!"_

"Artemis!" I gasped for air as my eyes snapped open and I stared into Dean's as he stopped shaking me. Athena and Sam were standing beside him with looks of concern and worry as they looked upon me with fright. And I didn't blame them. I had just had a vision of my own and more than likely had screamed that last part out, which wouldn't be surprising as it was horrifying watching it.

"Artemis, are you alright? Talk to me," Dean said as he ran a hand down the side of my face with concern.

"War," I whispered, causing him to furrow his brows as he looked at me.

"What?" he asked.

"War is coming, Dean, and it doesn't look pretty," I replied, causing him to look back at Sam, who gave me a look. I could tell he was concerned, especially since he hadn't share the vision with me like I normally did with him when he had one. I didn't blame him since he was part of this upcoming war like all the other special children. I just couldn't put my finger on some of the things about my vision such as Dean and hell and Kiki. What did they have to do with it? Was I going to have to sacrifice one of them to stay alive or whatnot? There was just too much. I couldn't do this.

Being part demon was definitely going to get me killed. No doubt about it.

***END AN: The fake report used against Artemis half way through the chapter will come into play a little bit later into the story. It has some life, so I didn't just introduce it for giggles. Hope you enjoyed this chapter!***


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